PAK vs AFG, ODI World Cup 2023: Pakistan skipper Babar Azam admitted being 'hurt' as the side after suffering a humiliating loss against Afghanistan in the ongoing ODI World Cup 2023 on Monday.

The MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai witnessed a remarkable upset after Afghanistan clinched their second win of the tournament, beating the Babar-led side by eight wickets.

This was Afghanistan's first-ever victory over Pakistan in ODIs after eight failed attempts as they chased down a 283-run target with an over to spare, with the Men in Green standing fifth in the table with just two wins and four points after five matches.

 

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"We are hurt as a team," said Babar after the loss.

Pakistan will be up against a formidable South Africa at the same Chennai venue on Friday.

"We must feel the disappointment and my message to my team for the remaining matches will be to learn from this defeat," he added.

Babar himself had a promising outing with the bat, scoring 74 off 95 balls with opener Abdullah Shafique also contributing with 58 runs to guide Pakistan to 282-7 after they won the toss and batted.

"We achieved what we set out to do when we batted but we were not up to the mark in bowling and fielding," said Azam.

"We failed to put them under pressure but I congratulate Afghanistan for this victory."

Afghanistan, after the win, have moved up to sixth place with two wins and four points.

They made a unique change in the team, including four specialist spinners to make it a struggle for the Pakistani batters on traditionally spin-friendly track.

"Afghanistan's spinners are of good quality so the plan was to not give them wickets until the 40th over and then charge in the last ten but we fell some 10-15 runs short," said Azam.

Noor Ahmad, 18, was the pick of the Afghanistan spinners with 3-49 on his World Cup debut while the more experienced slow bowlers, Rashid Khan and Mujeeb Ur Rahman went wicketless.

Despite Monday's shock defeat, Babar was hopeful that Pakistan could still qualify for the semi-finals.

"From now on we need to play our best cricket in all departments and must overcome our mistakes."

 

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He also mentioned that the absence of premium fast bowler Naseem Shah has been a big miss so far in the tournament as the young pacer was ruled out due to a shoulder injury.

"Of course, Naseem is missed badly because he had been part of our scheme but overall our bowling has not clicked," said Azam.

"We knew there are no margin for error on these grounds and we failed to execute plans."