Improving with experience
Pakistani all-rounder Ahmad Shahzad talks about his overall performance in the U/19 World Cup.
- Saturday, March 01, 2008
We are talking to Pakistani batsman Ahmad Shahzad, Ahmad you must be really happy just before your semi-final match?
Yes, we all are very happy because we really played some good cricket here.
Could you talk us through this entire tournament and how this experience has been for you?
You must have really enjoyed it, playing in Malaysia, and winning every single game until now. There have been a lot of different wickets here. We played in Johor before, completely different pitches there and here in KL there are some good wickets. So there is good experience to gain and we are learning a lot from here.
Game by game, your first match was against Malaysia, you got 27 runs there and you picked up a wicket as well. Was that a special game for you? Malaysia did put up a fight, did you enjoy that game?
Yah, I really enjoyed that game because, every game that you play you are not supposed to take it lightly. No matter whether it is Australia or Malaysia, every day is a new day so we are looking forward to the rest of the tournament and I definitely enjoyed that game.
After that game you did better with your bowling than your batting. You picked up a lot of wickets in the coming days but your batting was not all that great. Did you enjoy your bowling out there in Johor?
Yah, the pitch had some turn in it. Although I couldn’t do much with the bat I contributed with the ball.
The innings against Australia was very good. You got 40 runs there, were you a little disappointed that you couldn’t make a half century?
No, I was not disappointed; as long as my team wins I am happy.
Going into the semi-finals, you are going to play South Africa; they have quite a few good players, so are you guys nervous at all or are you very confident?
No, we are very confident because every single game our confidence has always been high and our guys are working very hard, so we just hope we can make a good contribution.
Are you looking forward to a big score here at this game? Because the wickets here are much better, so do you think you can put up a better batting performance?
Yea, definitely, I hope so, I will try and make a hundred and make my team win.
And suppose you win that game, it will be an India-Pakistan final. So is that something you guys are looking forward to?
Yes, we are looking forward to a match against India, it’s a big match.
How are you guys planning to tackle the Indian bowlers and how are your bowlers planning to tackle the Indian batsmen if you get to face them in the final?
We have not really discussed this yet but we are just looking at the semi-finals now, and taking it game by game. So after the semi-finals, if we win that game we will discuss how to tackle the Indians.