Salman Agha admits Pakistan underperformed under pressure

Pakistan needed to thrash Sri Lanka and gain a significant boost to their net run rate to stand any chance of making it through to the semi-finals.

While they were able to get the win on the day - by five runs - it was nowhere near comprehensive enough, leaving them third in the Super 8 group behind England and New Zealand and out of the tournament.

There was a point where it looked like they might not win the game at all, with Dasun Shanaka blasting Sri Lanka close with some lovely aggressive batting.

While they picked up the win on the day, Agha conceded his side were not at their best at the T20 World Cup as a whole.

"If you look at the whole tournament and I had to sum it up, we underperformed," he said.

"Our middle order never performed, and we over-relied on Sahibzada [Farhan] for our runs."

Farhan was the star of the show for them once again against Sri Lanka, with a blistering century and Agha admitted they were not good enough when the pressure was on.

"We take responsibility. We look at conditions and the situation required before selecting our playing XI as captain and coach together," Agha said.

"I take responsibility, as does the coach. We will have to improve our decision-making under pressure.

"There will always be pressure in ICC events, because you are playing the world's best teams.

"And every game is important because if you lose one, you feel on the brink of elimination.

"At the whole World Cup, the batting unit, Sahibzada aside, did not play very well.

"Today, we had an idea that we'd need Fakhar to utilise the powerplay. Saim [Ayub] wasn't in good form, so we felt we should use Fakhar there, and he batted outstandingly well.

"When we knew we needed to win by 65, we were playing with that intent. When we scored 200, we always knew what we'd need to defend.

"And we were thinking we could do that, but you've got to give credit to Dasun and [Pavan] Rathanayake as well. They batted brilliantly even though we put pressure on them.

"In the 20-over innings with the bat, we played 18 overs very well. The other team is allowed to play two overs well.

"The last three overs we bowled, our execution was not good. We're a better bowling unit than this, and we've been a better bowling unit in the past. Our execution with the ball was missing today.

"When the pressure is on, how we improve our decision-making matters. Whenever we are under pressure, our decision-making is not as good as it should be. And that's why we get the results we get."

READ MORE: Proteas could look to rest some regulars in Zimbabwe match