Pakistan hero Rizwan explains mindset behind record-breaking chase

An imposing Sri Lanka total of 344 required Pakistan to make history, but Rizwan saw his team home with an outstanding 131*.

For Rizwan, producing such a brilliant century as part of the historic chase was extremely special.

But he revealed that the team felt good about their chances of hunting down the sizeable target at the midway point of the innings.

“Whenever you perform for your country and the performance is like, it is speechless for you,” Rizwan told Simon Doull for the ICC after his Player of the Match efforts.

“It was difficult because with a chase like that it’s always special. But the thing is for us, when we went into the dressing room after bowling, every player had belief that we were going to chase that. So that’s why the positive vibes were in the mind.”

Rizwan revealed that there were two points during the match that proved to be key for Pakistan’s winning mindset.

The first came after Kusal Mendis’ stunning 77-ball 122 had helped Sri Lanka race to 218 after just 29 overs when he was dismissed, leaving Pakistan the task of limiting what could have become an insurmountable total.

Pakistan pull off biggest World Cup chase as Rizwan inspires victory

“At that point we decided that 340-350, if we restrict them to there we’re going to bowl very well. You saw in the middle of our overs, when Hasan Ali comes on, Shaheen Shah Afridi comes on and Haris Rauf, they bowled very well and restricted them then.

“We really must give credit to Kusal and Sadeera (Samarawickrama – Sri Lanka’s other century maker on the day). They played very well, but we knew that the pitch was very good and if the target was 350 we could chase that.”

And the second crucial moment for Pakistan came after Babar Azam was dismissed for 10 to leave Pakistan 37/2 and in trouble in their reply.

It was at this point that Rizwan revealed that he and Abdullah Shafique (113) decided not to overly worry about the run rate, but instead to bed in for a big partnership to lay the platform for a quicker finish.

“Unluckily they got Babar Azam, but this is a team game and at that time we decided to go with a deep partnership.

“Basically, a chase of 300-plus is always… it’s a good track, a supportive wicket for us. If we go deep and just turn the innings into a T20 innings towards the end, that’s what we decided.”

Shafique and Rizwan put on 176 for the third wicket, achieving exactly what they set out to do by laying a platform from which to launch.

The side still required 132 runs to win when Shafique departed, with 101 balls remaining, meaning the required run rate had risen but was still not above eight an over.

And with Rizwan at the other end, Saud Shakeel brought the target within reach with his 31 from 30 deliveries, before Iftikhar Ahmed (22* from 10) helped bring the game to a rapid conclusion with 10 balls still to play with.

At one point in his impressive innings, Rizwan went down with cramp and was aided by Dasun Shanaka.

And he joked after the game that it was quite a dramatic reaction: “Sometimes it’s cramp, sometimes it’s acting!”

Adding further detail in the media conference after the match, Rizwan said he is sometimes susceptible to cramping.

“I think I will give credit this time to our physio Cliffy (Cliffe Deacon). He gave us some kind of magic, I don’t know what you call it, cramp medicine.

“At the moment I’m fine. Sometimes it comes, sometimes it doesn’t come.”

Pakistan will hope that Rizwan stays fit and healthy to help steer the team to the final four of the tournament.

Two wins from two has put Pakistan in a strong early position, second in the table behind New Zealand on net run rate, with a big fixture against India in Ahmedabad up next on Saturday.