Tag: Abdullah Shafique century

LAHORE: Pakistan’s batting prodigy Abdullah Shafique shared that he feels contented over being praised by captain Babar Azam but his focus remains on improving his performance.

Shafique, while talking to the media on the sidelines of the ongoing national team’s training camp for the ODI series against Afghanistan and Asia Cup spoke highly of Babar Azam and called him “world-class” before revealing that he feels great on being praised by the Pakistan captain.

“Babar Azam is a world-class player, it feels great to be praised by him, however, the effort is to keep improving my performance,” said Abdullah Shafique.

“I have shown good performances in PSL and Test, I am trying to perform well in ODIs,” he added.

Abdullah Shafique, who has been a regular part of Pakistan’s red-ball set-up, enjoyed remarkable success in the recently-concluded two-match away Test series against Sri Lanka while aims to carry his form in ODI cricket.

“Good form helps a player perform well, I have shown good performances in PSL and Test cricket and I am trying to perform well in ODIs,” he said.

“ODI cricket has changed now, and we try to play according to the plan,” he added.

Abdullah Shafique has so far played only three ODIs and managed to score a mere 28 runs, contrasting his test cricket exploits, where he accumulated 1220 runs at an average of 50.83, including his maiden double hundred which came against Sri Lanka in the second Test.

Talking about facing India, he said: “The spirit is different against India, however, as players we focus on our performance.”

Pakistan cricket team’s brief three-day training camp will conclude on August 16 (tomorrow), before the team departs for Sri Lanka on August 17.

An 18-member Pakistan squad will take on Afghanistan in Sri Lanka from 22 to 26 August and it will be trimmed to 17 players for the Asia Cup, commencing on 30th August at Multan Cricket Stadium. Pakistan will face arch-rivals India in Kandy on September 2.

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GALLE: Pakistan’s fourth-inning centurion Abdullah Shafique, who bolstered the touring side to close in on the 342-run target has set his sights on leading the Green Shirts to victory in the first Test against Sri Lanka.

Abdullah, in a Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB)’s released statement on the conclusion of the fourth day of the ongoing Test, expressed satisfaction with his magnificent knock, while at the same time claiming that he is aware that the job is not done yet.

“First and foremost, I want to express my gratitude to the Almighty as I was able to score second Test hundred for Pakistan. We are currently in a very comfortable position, so I will do everything in my power to ensure that we pursue the total tomorrow,” Abdullah stated.

“The job is not done yet but the strive will be to maintain our focus tomorrow and chase the remaining total. The target is to not get easy in any phase and I am hopeful the result will be in our favour,” he added.

The right-handed batter then went on to reveal the team’s strategy to go for the total and claimed that they divided the target into small partitions, session by session to move closer to it by the end of the day.

“The master plan was to go for the chase, but we made small targets session by session to come closer to it,” he revealed.

The opening batter, who remained unbeaten with a magnificent 122, also opined on his crucial 101-run partnership with Pakistan captain Babar Azam and claimed that the latter’s presence gives him a lot of confidence.

“Babar is a wonderful batter and I have always learned from him. It was helpful to have him at the other end. He was guiding me throughout,” Abdullah shared.

“His wicket put more responsibility on me. I tried to not lose a wicket and help my team finish the day on a high note. Now, my target is to win this match for my team tomorrow,” he maintained.

Abdullah then heaped praises on Sri Lanka’s left-arm spinner Prabath Jayasuriya and claimed that the team’s strategy was to go after him and stop him from stifling the touring batters.

“We chose to pursue Jayasuriya, a fantastic bowler who was extremely challenging to face on this pitch, and develop scoring options against him so that he wouldn’t feel like he was succeeding,” he concluded.

It is pertinent to mention here that Pakistan need a further 120 runs on the final day to seal victory in the ongoing first Test against Sri Lanka. Centurion Abdullah (122*) and Mohammad Rizwan (7*) will resume the proceedings for the touring side at 222/3.

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