ISLAMABAD: Former cricketers have credited Haris Sohail for Pakistan’s victory in the 2019 Cricket World Cup match against South Africa but urged the green-shirts to improve fielding as the team cannot go further in the mega event without improving in the said department.

Former skipper Rashid Latif said hats off to the Pakistan team for performing extremely well under-pressure.

“The credit goes to Haris Sohail who played an awesome innings (89 runs off 59 balls) and took Pakistan to a 300 total on the scoreboard,” he said on the YouTube channel.

He said Pakistan has always won matches against New Zealand and South Africa in major tournaments.

“Mohammad Amir also bowled very well and Imam-ul-Haq played some good drives,” he said and added Fakhar Zaman, Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq must prolong their innings.

Former skipper Rameez Raja said the players’ selection for match against South Africa was very good.

“Pakistan wouldn’t have reached 300 mark nor would have won the match if Harris had not scored 89 off 59 balls,” he said.

He said Amir and Wahab Raiz bowled very well but Pakistani players needed to improve fielding as no team could excel in the tournament on poor fielding.

“Now every match for Pakistan is a do-and-die game and we need to win all matches,” he said.

Former pacer Shoaib Akhtar said he had been time and again pushing the team management to include Haris in the Playing XI. “Haris looked better than Babar in shot selection and hitting,” he said.

He also urged Babar, saying if he follows Virat Kohli, then he must play like him and improvise his game.

“Pakistan players must improve their fielding as the green-shirts still have chances to excel in the tournament,” he said.

The Rawalpindi express said besides the Pakistani nation, the people of England and India also want to see Pakistan moving ahead in the tournament.

“English team has tough matches ahead against India, New Zealand and Australia. No one knows what happens next in the tournament,” he said.—APP