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ICC CHAMPIONS TROPHY

June 4, 2017

Mickey Arthur

Edgbaston, Birmingham

India won by 124 runs (D/L method)

Q. Total contrast in standard of play, teams were â€“ it seemed that teams were playing at different levels, one world No. 3 and one world No. 8 â€¦
MICKEY ARTHUR: I think you answered the question, exactly that. One team played really well today or played as well as they could have, and we were below par. As simple as that. And it's a reality check of where we are in our one-day cricket at the moment.

Q. The body language didn't look good out there. Is that a concern? It's something that you've mentioned in the past. And from ball 1, pretty much some of the guys looked quite lacklustre, and there wasn't a lot of effort from some of them?
MICKEY ARTHUR: I can never ever accuse the guys of no effort. I think that's an insult, to be honest. The guys tried as hard as they could. My issue is fear. My issue is getting out there and really looking to take the game on and just believing in themselves and believing that they can take the game on. We talk about setting tone up front. We didn't set tone up front. We had a couple of guys that were in the clouds at the start. And that sets tone. And we didn't do it, we had a good chat when we came off of that first rain interruption, and then we were better afterwards. But the worrying thing for me, and it has been for a period of time, is we just do the basics wrong. We do the simple things wrong. We drop simple catches. We don't run well enough between wickets. We don't hit the keeper with our throws. We don't understand when to bowl our variations. We bowled a really good over and then we bowled a variation our sixth ball and that's the ball that ended up going for a boundary. So it's the simplicity of those things that are worrying me at the moment and our understanding of when to do certain things. So that was disappointing. But we'll bounce back from it.

Q. Is there any particular reason why Hafeez didn't bowl in the match? Is he fit to bowl?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yeah, he's fit to bowl. I'm not sure. Can't answer that one. But, yeah, he's fit to bowl.

Q. When you took over as coach last year, you talked about Pakistan not playing like good enough cricket for modern-day game. It's been a year, Pakistan are playing even worse. So what was your input in this?
MICKEY ARTHUR: That's a total insult to say we're playing even worse. If you have a look at our records over the last year we've won two series. We've got ourselves from No. 9 to No. 8, and our brand of cricket has changed. We had a poor game today and we're obviously trying our best and we're trying to change it. And it's not going to happen overnight. I'm, I said, I'm particularly disappointed, but to ask me that question is an insult to how hard these boys have trained and what those boys have done.

Q. How long will it take, do you think, for them to change their brand of cricket?
MICKEY ARTHUR: How long is a piece of string? I don't know. We're trying every day. Every time we go down to training, we try and get the basics right. We didn't do it today. And that's disappointing.

Q. Sarfraz yesterday said that they'll do something out of the box. So what exactly was out of the box today?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Well, we selected a team that we thought would give us options. We selected a team that we thought could go out there and rattle the cages of India. Ultimately we â€¦ our execution wasn't good enough today. But we thought â€¦ and you can still get out of the box but there's nothing out of the box here. We opened with a left-arm spinner. That might be out of the box. But in cricket it's a matter of taking wickets and scoring runs. There's not a hell of a lot you can do differently. All we can do is try and give options and try variations and try and come with a plan to beat our opposition, which we thought we did. We thought we had an attack that could really attack them and put them under pressure. And we didn't execute that at all.

Q. Junaid Khan has performed very well against India and he bowled very well in the practice match also. Was he fully fit, or he was not preferred over Wahab Riaz? What was the reason for that?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Junaid Khan's fully fit. There's no question about that. We just wanted somebody different. We just wanted another option. Wahab Riaz gave us pace. Junaid Khan, Hasan Ali, Amir â€¦ all there and thereabouts in terms of their pace. We wanted semobody who could give us a different option. And that's why we went that way.

Q. Pakistan was always known for their fighting brand of cricket. I mean, there are defeats and defeats, but do you think today's defeat like this will only take Pakistan cricket backwards?
MICKEY ARTHUR: It will never take Pakistan cricket backwards. In fact, something like this could take it forwards, for the simple reason that a lot of questions get answered. When we put a performance in like that we answer a lot of questions, and a lot of things become clearer for us in terms of how we take this team forward. So, yeah, disappointing. The boys didn't go out there to perform like that. The boys have trained extremely hard. They've worked extremely hard over 12 days. It's up to me and my coaching staff to find out why we didn't execute. Was it â€¦ why were we so tentative? That's more the issues for me at the moment. So, yeah, it's disappointing, but we'll go back to the drawing boards and we'll hopefully come back a lot stronger.

Q. Waqar (Younis) felt that the problem lay in domestic cricket, so they're not exactly at the standard required. Do you feel that's why the errors take place?
MICKEY ARTHUR: No. I mean, I can't sit here and use that as an excuse. Absolutely not. We've had a long time with these players. The errors under pressure are worrying. And we certainly can't blame that down on domestic cricket at all.

Q. Couple of things, do you think that some of your players were rattled by the size of the occasion, which maybe particularly showed up in the fielding? And Mohammed Amir, he had a cramp?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yup, Mohammad Amir had a cramp.

Q. Which is unusual on a rainy day in Birmingham.
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yeah, Ali cramped as well. I don't know why they're cramping. That's something that I need to take up with the medical team. The magnitude of the occasion? Possibly. Possibly. And I think very definitely. Because for us to go and have our performance as tentative as that right from the start is a worry. And the only thing I can think of is the magnitude of the occasion got to them.

Q. Just when Amir left, Pakistan was still in the game. India had slowed down at that point. It was one of the brightest phases of the game for Pakistan. Do you think in that last eight or nine overs India took the game away?
MICKEY ARTHUR: Yeah, they did. And that's our own fault because we had two opportunities. Hasan Ali dropped Yuvraj and Fahim Ashraf dropped Virat Kohli. You take those catches, it's a different game. I thought at one stage we bowled well enough to be chasing 270. If things went our way and we hung on to those two catches and then knocked out another guy early on, or got Dhoni early on, it would have given us a real opportunity of knocking them over for 270 or chasing 270 possibly. We'll never know. But we didn't take opportunities. And Yuvraj and Virat made us pay for it.

Q. Are you going to take the blame for this defeat? Or how do you explain the selection of Wahab Riaz, especially when he was not fully fit? He had a knee injury in practice match and he was not fully fit for this match?
MICKEY ARTHUR: All right. Let's get something straight first off. Wahab Riaz was fully fit. He went through a fitness test; he was declared fully fit. So it's not that Wahab Riaz was not fit. He was fit for the game. Okay? He performed poorly today. But he had a role to play. And I'll take the blame, me, I'll take it. I selected him. I selected him because I wanted him to perform a role. Okay? He didn't execute that role, unfortunately. So sometimes it works out. Sometimes it doesn't. We picked Shadab ahead of Fahim today. That worked really well. I thought Shadab was outstanding. So, sometimes it works. Sometimes it doesn't. I've got to go back and have a look at our opposition, have a look at our team, have a look at where we're at in terms of our form, and then you select a team that you think can beat the opposition you play. So, we'll do that. We'll go back again. We certainly are not going to â€¦ we'll have a good, hard chat tonight. And then when we leave the dressing room tonight it will all be done, and we'll be thinking firmly of coming back and beating South Africa. Because that's what I think our players can do, and that's what I certainly believe our team can do. So, we're going to be up for the fight, and I'd be really disappointed if we walked away, really, and for the rest of the tournament sort of hit our heads because we're better than that.

Reviewed by Raj

CHECKED BY WISDEN INDIA

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