Team Pakistan Shocks India With Shahid Afridi Impact
Team Pakistan Shocks India With Shahid Afridi Impact: Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi did well in the last over to seal a memorable victory in the 2014 Asia Cup contest. After winning the toss, Pakistan restricted India to a below-par total of 245/8 and put them in bat first. In the last over, Afridi smacked back-to-back sixes to shock the Indians, take his team to a win in Mirpur, and put Pakistan ahead of arch-rivals India in the ranking.
With two overs left, Mohammad Hafeez and Shoaib Maqsood put together a key partnership in order to take their team closer to victory. However, Ravichandran Ashwin sent Saeed Ajmal back on the first ball of the final over and Bhuvneshwar Kumar conceded just three runs to make it hard for Pakistan.
Afridi, who was not batting in the inning, managed to clinch an important victory for Pakistan by scoring six runs. He did so after Junaid Khan got his first run and Ashwin only managed one.
Pakistan captain, Mohammad Hafeez has taken a dig at Ashwin but he also said that it is difficult to execute without the team balance. The former Pakistan captain said that Ashwin did not play any part in the Asia Cup T20 tournament because of which India played with two leg spinner while three left handed players are in Pakistan’s eleven.
“Thank you, Shahid Afridi. It is the impact of your two sixes to finish an Asia Cup 2014 match,” Hafeez told PTV Sports in a video shared on his Twitter account.
In an interview, Afridi talked about his strategy in the last over against Ashwin. Saeed Ajmal was removed on the first ball so he tricked India by bowling off-break instead of leg-spin and then scored a six.
Mohammad Amir was batting with me and I told him to put the bat on the ball and somehow get a single.. Ashwin was bowling well, he was getting spin from the track too. Junaid khan then came in and I told him the same thing – just get a single. And he managed to get me back on strike, said an ex-Pakistan captain.
The plan against Ashwin was to hit his leg spin in the air to deceive him. That way, he would not come in from the other end and bowl his off-spin. He obliged, and bowled a wide off-spin for me to hit for six.
I missed the ball in the middle, so I was not sure if it would go over the ropes or not. But, after a difficult delivery, the ball sailed over the fielder-for a six. I breathed a sigh of relief.