London: Pakistan coach Mickey Arthur urged the InternationalCricket Council (ICC) to give head-to-head record a higher priority than netrun rate after the team's final game of the 2019 World Cup against Bangladesh.

"I would have liked the ICC to consider head to headbecause tonight we would be in the semi-final. It is disappointing, and it justgoes back to our first game (a heavy defeat) against the West Indies,"Mickey Arthur said. "We had an opportunity to beat Australia and we didn'ttake that. Those are the two nightmares I'm going to have," he added.

Pakistan went into the match against Bangladesh on Fridayneeding to win by a record margin in order to pip New Zealand to finalsemi-final spot on the basis of net run rate. Batting first, they ended theirinnings on 315/9 and needed to bowl out Bangladesh for seven in order to get tothe top four. They eventually won the match by a comprehensive margin of 94runs but that wasn't enough for them to seal a spot in the semi-final.

"What the system has done to us is that after one verypoor game, you really battle to recover again. So it's a very disappointeddressing room, no congratulations going on because we haven't qualified.Congratulations to the four who have, I think they've played the best cricketso far and may the best team win," said Arthur.

"But it is nice for us to sit here and know we'vebeaten two of those teams [England and New Zealand] which shows we're not amile off in terms of ourselves as a cricket team."