'Don't Have To Bother About Pace': Pakistan Captain Salman Agha After Entering T20 World Cup Super Eight
Describing his team's 102-win over Namibia as a "complete performance", Pakistan skipper Salman Agha on Wednesday expressed confidence in his spinners' ability to fire in their first Super Eights game.
Describing his team's 102-win over Namibia as a "complete performance", Pakistan skipper Salman Agha on Wednesday expressed confidence in his spinners' ability to fire in their first Super Eights game of the T20 World Cup against New Zealand. Pakistan rode on Sahibzada Farhan's maiden hundred and their spinners' excellent display to crush Namibia and make the next stage of the tournament, bouncing back from the heavy defeat to India. "It is a complete performance. We batted well in the powerplay and the middle overs as well. Farhan has been batting well for a while and I am happy that he got his hundred," Salman said at the presentation ceremony.
Pakistan will begin get the Super Eights underway with the match against New Zealand at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday, and Salman sounded confident ahead of the big game.
"We have been playing good cricket. New Zealand have been playing good cricket as well so should be a good game. We have the luxury of spinners and the all-rounders who can bat as well.
"In Sri Lanka if you have such quality spinners you don't have to bother about bowling pace," Salman said.
On mystery spinner Usman Tariq's (4/16) remarkable spell, Salman said he was glad that they don't have to face him in a match.
"With the ball we were lethal. He is a tough bowler, trust me. I have faced him in domestic cricket. It's tough to pick him, especially with that pause. Thankfully he is playing for our team," the captain said.
Having posted 199 for three after batting first, Pakistan bowled out Namibia for 97.
This was Player of the Match Sahibzada Farhan's first century in the format internationally but fifth in T20s since 2025.
"I don't miss a match in domestic cricket and doing well in domestic cricket for the last four odd years helped me," Farhan said, as former Pakistan captain and expert Wasim Akram translated his words into English.
"It's the result of consistent hard work in domestic cricket back home in Pakistan. The pitch wasn't easy to bat on initially but after a few hits I played my natural game. I told Shadab that we need to get a partnership because we had lost two quick wickets. Everything went according to plan," the opener added.
The defeat meant Namibia ended their campaign winless after four suffering four successive losses.
The quality in Pakistan's spin bowling proved too much for Namibia.
"It's a special skill to have, to turn the ball both ways like they do. I think that's one of the things we'll definitely take home and look to improve on, is facing that type of bowling and making good plans around it and getting that skill level up in order to combat that," Namibia skipper Gerhard Erasmus said.
Asked about the learnings from the tournament, he said, "It's always about nailing those specialist positions. I think for these four editions of the World Cup, it's largely been like the top and bottom kind of thing." "So openers with the bat this tournament is definitely a great takeaway, how they've batted it in this tournament." The next ODI World Cup is set to be held in South Africa, Zimbabwe and Namibia and asked about it, Erasmus said, "Yeah, lots of cricket around and lots of really exciting things happening in and around cricket in Namibia, which gives the boys a lot of pleasing things to play for. And for the future of cricket in the country, it's definitely a lot to play for."
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Pakistan Cricket Team
Namibia