Pakistan captain Younus Khan was unfazed by his side's loss to Australia in their final Champions Trophy round-robin match Wednesday, which he felt was probably a good thing as they head into the knockout stage. Australia's two-wicket win off the last ball at SuperSport Park placed them at the top of Group A and the title holders will face England in Centurion Friday while Pakistan play Group B winners New Zealand at the Wanderers on Saturday.
But while the game was turned on its head in the last 10 overs with Pakistan's bowlers ripping through the Australian middle order, Pakistan should have been thumped. Showing little intent of putting up a big total when batting first, having already qualified for the play-offs, they reached a modest 205-6 after losing the toss, and only the late collapse of the Australian middle-order brought them back into the game. But Younus said he wasn't worried about their first loss of the competition, as long as it didn't come in a more crucial encounter.
"It's nothing because sometimes you win all the games in the first stage and then suddenly you lose a big game," Younus said. "So it's good for us, not like some other teams, like South Africa and Sri Lanka in the last World T20, who won all their games and then lost the big games. Younus said he had been confident that his bowlers could defend the total they put up, giving credit in particular to Shahid Afridi, Saeed Ajmal, Rana Naved-ul-Hasan and Mohammad Asif, back in action after a one-year ban.