Former Pakistan captain Salman Butt harshly criticised Haris Rauf for not bowling towards his own end during the T20 World Cup match against the USA in Dallas, Texas on Thursday. Rauf was tasked with bowling the final over when the USA needed 15 to win. The experienced right-arm pacer conceded a six to Aaron Jones off the third ball and was narrowed down to five off the final ball. Rauf aimed for Yorke as mid-off rose. It was a low full toss and USA batsman Nitish Kumar had enough bat to drive the ball over the mid-off fielder’s head for the boundary.
With both USA and Pakistan scoring 159, the match went into a Super Over, where Pakistan conceded eight extra runs for 18 behind. Mohammed Amir was the culprit. Pakistan’s fielders were also in complete disarray, allowing the USA batsmen easy singles and doubles.
In reply, Pakistan could only manage 12 runs in a Super Over bowled by Saurabh Netravalkar and the USA made history by defeating Pakistan in a World Cup match. This was the USA’s third victory over a Test match nation, but none as big as this one against the former world champions.
Butt said Rauf doesn’t seem to look at his field before bowling. “It’s not surprising that he concedes so many runs because he’s a boy who doesn’t look at his field at all. Mid-off is inside the circle but he bowls a full ball and it bounces out on the last ball. You can see the captain shouting at him too. When mid-off is standing, you don’t bowl a full ball. That’s the basics of cricket,” Butt said on the “Cricket Baithak” podcast.
Rauf gave up 37 runs in his four overs – the most costly of any Pakistan bowler who bowled more than one over on Thursday – and was also guilty of not pitching the ball to Andreas Guth in the middle overs.
Bhatt continued his scathing criticism of Rauf, saying the tall fast bowler is “unprofessional” and “never learns from his mistakes”.
“He (Haris Rauf) has this weird style of getting on his knees and putting his hands on his head while bowling, as if he has lost money in the stocks or someone has robbed him. I don’t know what he is trying to express but it is very unprofessional. You can’t learn anything from them. They lacked common sense and awareness of the game,” Butt said.
Haris Rauch suspected of ball tampering
Meanwhile, Rusty Theron, who is not a member of the US team, claimed that Rauf had run the ball with his thumb nail two overs earlier, causing the ball to reverse.
The 38-year-old seamer, a former South African player, slammed the ICC for failing to investigate the incident.
“@ICC Are we going to pretend Pakistan haven’t thoroughly scratched this newly replaced ball? Flip a ball that was only replaced 2 overs ago? I can literally see Haris Rauf running his thumb nail over the ball at the top of the mark. @usacricket #PakvsUSA,” Theron wrote on ‘X’.
Pakistan will next play India in New York on Sunday.
