18 February - Paarl - Pakistan player Aiman Anwer pre-match press conference
[Reporter]
You have a match against West Indies tomorrow - how do you see that you - your previous match against Ireland was very good, so how important is this next match for you and how have you prepared for it?
[Aiman Anwer]
Yes, it is a very important match, it is very crucial to stay alive in this tournament and we have a very good preparation against it and we are confident after Ireland victory that if we play with our full potential in this match, we can win the match.
[Reporter]
Muniba Ali's innings were very extraordinary, did you expect that the top order will perform like this and you will win so convincingly against Ireland?
[Aiman Anwer]
Yes, Muniba has always had a lot of potential, we have seen this in our domestic cricket and in our camps and we have always prayed for the team to do this, so we are very happy that she performed so well in such moments that when we were playing against Ireland, and Ireland is also a very good team, you cannot relax against them, especially after their win against us in Pakistan, so I am very happy that the top order performed so well.
[Reporter]
And the third question, the fast bowlers have not been able to perform as expected, we see spinners like Nashrat Sindhu, Sadhya have been performing very well. So is the wicket such or has your performance changed?
[Aiman Anwer]
I think me being a fast bowler and a professional cricketer I will say that wickets shouldn’t be an excuse for us, we should be able to take up the challenge to play on any surface. I think it’s a flaw in the execution and we have to improve. We shouldn’t think of what we have done in the past, we want to move on and do the best for our team.
[Reporter]
Have you seen the pitch, the pitch favours the spinners, so have you thought anything about this?
[Aiman Anwer]
If it favours the spinners I will just wish that our bowlers play in such a way that the other team struggles against them.
[Reporter]
And you saw West Indies match yesterday, what did you think about their team and their strengths and what challenges will you face?
[Aiman Anwer]
It's I think the West Indies team are very good and their every player is a striker so we can never take them easy.
[Reporter]
We have seen that we have played a practice game over here in Boland Park against South Africa and it was a really close game. We saw that Aliya she batted well. So, you do have some experience about the wicket, do you have some knowledge about the wicket? So how do you see the game against the West Indies at the same ground?
[Aiman Anwer]
Yes, I think the wicket was supportive for both the batters and the bowlers. It's about the execution and who absorbs the pressure best. We had a match against South Africa there. We did well in the batting but we were unable to stop them in the power play. But then we made a strong comeback so we have high beliefs that if we play up to our potential, we can always perform well in any wicket.