8 March - Tauranga - Pakistan player Aliya Ria post-match press conference
Reporter: Not the results you wanted today but were you pleased to be able to put on that big partnership with your captain and really frustrate these giants for a long time there? How pleased is she to put on that 99 run partnership with Bismah today?
Translated Aliya:
That it is unfortunate we could not win the match. But the partnership with Bismah was a good one. When she entered with Bismah- Pakistan had lost some wickets early on. So the plan was to just stay in longer in the innings and build a partnership.
Reporter: This is slightly off topic, but are you aware that Bismah’s baby is a worldwide celebrity? We have people from Australia asking about the baby everybody loves and wants the baby, it's like the mascot of the Whole World Cup?
Translated Aliya:
Yes, It is good to have baby Fatima in the camp with us and it is very good to see that even the opposition sides are coming and you know they are giving love to her and it is also very good for Bismah that she's able to carry her child with the team and for this tour.
Reporter: Do you think it's helped Bismah’s performances?
Translated Aliya:
She thinks Bismah is very happy to have Fatima with her and of course what the team required from Bismah is scores in the top order and Bismah has been able to deliver that for Pakistan.
Reporter: As a senior player can you please tell us that why Pakistani batting opening pairs keeps changing in this world cup. In first match, Sidra and Javeria opened the bat while in this match while today we saw Sidra and Nahida opening the bat. Before world cup, Muniba did opening in 12 matches. Can you please comment on it?
Aliya: As per team requirement- as you can see Sidra and Javeria are senior players and they have scored big in past. However, due to groin injury, Javeria was not available for today’s match. Talking about changes in batting pairs, we apply our batters as per pitch requirement. Both Sidra and Nahida are experienced players. We have 3-4 opening pair combinations and in this tournament we prefer those players for opening pair who are in good nick.
Reporter: You missed the 2017 world cup. This is your first world cup campaign. You lost against India in first match. We want to know about your emotions and your experience of playing first world cup.
Aliya: It’s my first world cup and I am very excited about it. We did not start well in first match however we will come back strongly in next matches as tournament is still open. We will try to play well in next matches.
Reporter: How you people are working on your strike rotating in training sessions. You training staff and Coach David Hemp, how they are helping in it. How you people have trained yourself for power hitting in recent past. Because today, your team played more than 180 dot balls which lowered your scoring rate.
Aliya: We lost early wickets so it was need of the hour to take time on wicket and build a partnership. When we tried to accelerate, I lost my wicket. However, Bismah carried it well and took it to end. David Hem is working individually with each player according to individual role of each player. Regarding power hitting, every player has different power hitting session in nets. We are working on it and in next matches, hopefully you will see better results.
Reporter: One more follow up question. Have you planned to promote Diana Baig in batting order to improve the scoring rate in top order as she is a good power hitter?
Aliyah: See, Both Fatima Sana and Diana Baig, have been proved to be good hitters in lower batting order. Diana has an adaptive nature, wherever she is given chance, she tend to play her role.
Reporter: When you last time played against Australia, you scored your first ODI half century in 3rd Pak vs Aus. 3rd ODI 2018. Once again it was your second match against Australia and you scored another fifty. We want to know that do you like Australian bowler so much that it is very easy for you to score big against them.
Aliya: I had it in my mind that I scored my first ODI fifty against Australia. This time situation was bit tough but I tried to score valuable runs for my team. I was playing according to situation. That’s it.
Reporter: Congratulation to you on first world cup fifty. As you told you lost early wickets and then you and Bismah made highest partnership score for Pakistan in world cup and scored big for your team. Pakistani bowling was good at the inning start but unfortunately you and Nida Dar dropped the easy catches. Do you think, Pakistan need to work more in fielding department? Because drop catches made huge difference in today’s match.
Aliya: Yes I agree, against big teams we need to take these opportunities otherwise we may lose our grip on match. We need to work more on ground fielding and catching. In next matches we will try to improve our fielding more.
Reporter: I have not seen you bowling often as you did not bowl in qualifiers as well. Will you be bowling in next match as well or we will have to ask again from Bismah about your bowling.
Aliya: I am bit out from bowling since last year due to back injury. I am working on my bowling and I will make myself available whenever my captain would like to utilize my skills. I will try to perform well in bowling as well.
Thank you everyone that’s what we have from press conference.