‘Our goal was to chase it down quickly’ - Fakhar Zaman talks of prioritizing team victory over century

Babar Azam-led Pakistan broke their losing streak at the ongoing ODI World Cup by registering a dominant victory against Bangladesh. Both sides faced each other in the 31st game of the tournament on Tuesday, October 31. Bundling out Bangladesh on a total of 204 runs, Pakistan completed a comfortable run chase, winning the game by seven wickets. 

Abdullah Shafique and Fakhar Zaman scored 68 and 81 runs, respectively, and helped the side register a win after four consecutive losses. Speaking of the win, Fakhar Zaman came forward to state that being in the situation that the side was in, the batter went hard and aimed to win the game as early as possible.

He also opined that he could have easily gotten a century, but he prioritized winning the game over the personal milestone.

"Because of the situation that we are in at the moment, we were looking to chase the target down in 28–29 overs, so I went hard. Otherwise, it was very easy for me to get to the 100, but our goal was to chase it down quickly," Zaman said in a post-match press conference.

We were anxiously waiting for this win: Zaman

Furthermore, Fakhar Zaman also talked about how the entire team was desperately waiting for a win. Stating that the ultimate goal is reaching the semi-finals of the ODI World Cup 2023, Zaman opined that their loss to the Indian team had a big impact on their form.

"We were anxiously waiting for this win; every win in the World Cup boosts confidence, and our aim is to win the remaining two matches. Our target is semi-final,” Zaman said.

"That loss to India made the difference; every match against India does, but we fought well in the South Africa match, and that fight gave us much-needed rhythm," he added.

Pakistan barely missed out on winning the clash against in-form South Africa, and the side will be hoping that with a win against Bangladesh, the Men in Green will find form