English
New Delhi: Former Pakistan speedster Shoaib Akhtar has seen plenty of high and lows in his career. However, the semi-final loss against the arch-rivals India at 2011 World cup still haunts him. In his interaction with sportskeeda, the 46-year-old explained how Pakistan could have taken the advantage of being underdogs before the match.
Akhtar said,”Mohali’s memory haunts me, the 2011 World Cup semifinal. I knew India was under tremendous pressure as 1.3 billion people and the media were all over them. So then we were underdogs and we shouldn’t have taken pressure. I was so sad because if I had played that game, I would have taken down Sehwag and Sachin. I knew if we hold these two players from the top, India will collapse.”
Akhtar also remembered how he was furious with the Pakistan management for dropping him before an all important game. He insisted that if he would have taken down Sachin Tendulkar and Virender Sehwag inside 10 overs, India would have collapsed.
“I only know how I spent those six hours seeing Pakistan losing. I am not the kind of a person who cries but I break things. So I broke a few things in the dressing room. I was so furious and disappointed and so was my whole nation. It was a game of the first ten overs.
“They should have played me. The management didn’t play me and that was unfair to me. I just had these two matches with me and I wanted the Pakistan flag to fly high at Wankhede. They told me I was unfit, but I bowled eight overs in the warm-up. I was very hurt by that.”
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