Ramiz Raja: “If Pakistan was playing against India in the semis, the world would have stopped to see the match and the eyeballs would [have been] glued to see the encounter”

Image courtesy of: ESPNcricinfo

Former Pakistan captain Ramiz Raja was not impressed with New Zealand’s performance in their World Cup semi-finals clash against India, and believes that Pakistan would have made the match more entertaining.

Pakistan lost to India by 89 runs via the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method in the group stage of the World Cup on June 16.

However, even though the men in green went on to win their next four games after that loss, which came against South Africa, New Zealand, Afghanistan and Bangladesh, they failed to advance to the semi-finals since New Zealand had a better net run rate than them.

New Zealand ended up beating India by 18 runs and thus progressed to the World Cup final, where they will either play Australia or England, depending on which side triumphs in their semi-finals clash at Edgbaston on Thursday.

“It was a pretty sour performance from New Zealand in such a big match, one can understand why Pakistani fans are angry because if Pakistan was playing against India in the semis, the world would have stopped to see the match and the eyeballs would [have been] glued to see the encounter,” he was quoted as saying by the Business Recorder. “Pakistani fans also add to the color of the tournament, whereas there were hardly any New Zealand fans present in the match.”

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