During the period in question [overs 11 to 24], Rizwan faced 45 deliveries, and 29 of those were dots. He didn’t hit a single boundary, and got only 16 singles. Eventually, Rizwan struggled his way to 46 off 77 balls. He fell when he skipped down the pitch to try and loft Axar Patel, but missed and was bowled.
Rizwan had slog-swept Kuldeep Yadav for four off the first ball he had faced. His next boundary only came on the 49th delivery he faced off Ravindra Jadeja in the 25th over. Another – the third and last – came off Jadeja in the 27th. When he was dismissed by Axar in the 34th over, Rizwan’s partnership with Shakeel was worth 104, but it had taken 144 balls.
“I think Rizwan, in his 46 off 77 – strike rate of 59 – just wasn’t good enough because we’re talking about a team where the best batter in the team [Babar Azam] is obviously out of form, hasn’t been churning out those big runs… and he got out early,” Mumtaz said.
“Imam [had] that unfortunate run-out. So it was down to Rizwan as captain to put his hand up and show that brave attitude. Maybe even not just trying to botch everything down, but maybe just better strike rotation, [the lack of] which I thought was a massive fault, and probably applied a little bit more pressure on Saud as well.”