Hafeez thanks team for backing him

‘Man-of-the-Match' Mohammad Hafeez thanked his team for reposing faith in him after his recent lean patch.

“I had a poor series against England but the team had faith in me, supported me and that helped me. It feels good to score these runs today.

“The pitch did a bit in the initial phase and at that time it was all about patience and I played accordingly.

“Our players held their nerves in the end, especially Umar Gul and helped us win,” Hafeez said after Pakistan defeated Bangladesh here on Sunday.

Some concerns

The all-rounder admitted that there are concerns over the middle-order and also praised Bangladesh.

“In the last few matches our middle-order batsmen have not clicked. It is something that we need to work on.

“We always knew that Bangladesh is a good team especially at home. When Shakib Al Hasan and Nasir Hossain were batting, we still backed our bowlers to come good,” said Hafeez.

On match-fixing allegations

Asked about the match-fixing allegations over last year's World Cup semifinal between India and Pakistan, surfacing in overseas newspapers, Hafeez said: “I am hearing it for the first time and I have no comments.”

Hafeez also stated that it was too early to talk about the contest between India and Pakistan here on March 18.

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim said that the dismissal of Nasir proved to be the turning point.

“This match had different trends but the biggest turning point was when Nasir got out.

“Some of the senior players in our lower order could have given more strike to Shakib but they failed. Hopefully they have learnt their lessons and will not repeat these mistakes,” Mushfiqur said.