Hafeez admitted that Sri Lanka had outplayed his team in the semi-final

Pakistan captain Mohammad Hafeez has announced that he was proud to see his team give it their all throughout the International Cricket Council (ICC) World Twenty20, despite losing to Sri Lanka in the semi-finals.

Hafeez admitted that the loss was disappointing, but credited Sri Lanka for being the better team during the match.

“We all knew that our people were following the World Twenty20 very closely and wanted us to do well and play in the final. Unfortunately we couldn’t do that and Sri Lanka was the better team in the semifinal, but I am satisfied that the entire team worked hard and gave their best. We remained positive throughout the tournament and overall our performance was good but we failed at the final stage,” Hafeez said.

Hafeez had been heavily criticised during the tournament due to his stubbornness in not willing to bat lower down the order after having failed to really make an impact as an opener.

“But this was one of the toughest World Twenty20 tournaments we have played in and every match was very hard. All the teams came well prepared,” Hafeez added.

However, Hafeez noted that Pakistan had a lot of positives they could take away from the tournament.

“But we have some positives from the tournament like the performances of Reza Hasan and Umar Akmal and we need to work on our positive points,” Hafeez said.

Hafeez also clarified the ongoing dispute between him and all-rounder Abdul Razzaq, who was infuriated after being dropped for the semi-final against Sri Lanka, stating that the decision had been made by the team management and not himself.