Peshawar Zalmi knocked out the defending champion Islamabad United and qualified for the Pakistan Super League season four final against Quetta Gladiators. And United coach, Dean Jones, had a word or two to say on the matter, especially pertaining to the security protocol offered by the authorities in Karachi.
Speaking of his experience in Karachi, Jones expressed nothing but appreciation for the city. “Today wasn’t good, but we’ve got three games here so it’s been pretty great so far. Karachi’s a spot for us,” he said, adding how the players love coming out here, despite facing problems with sleep and jet lag.
Further talking about the security, he deemed it a little overbearing. “The security’s been brilliant, a little bit too much at times. We’d like to go out and see Karachi a little bit more, to be honest. Maybe [the players] can relax a little bit more,” he said.
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“The security can help us get around. Being cooped up in a hotel is not the greatest thing of all time,” he said, while mentioning the recent New Zealand shooting and how unfortunate an incident it was. “Considering the world events that have been happening [like the Christchurch attack], we just lost a cricket match, so we’ll move on,’ he added.
He also disclosed some of his theories, which he believes works for the winning team “Eight times out of ten, the better bowling teams always win in T20 cricket, and we were let down,” he said. Moreover, he also mentioned how the absence of Misbah-ul-Haq was immensely felt. “Misbah was great, we always loved him in our team but unfortunately, he had other things to do,” he said.
By the end of the post-match press conference, Jones got teary-eyed when he mentioned Asif Ali, whose daughter is apparently severely unwell. The coach previously shared an unpleasant discourse with a journalist who criticised Ali’s performance, and fully defended the player on his behalf.