In Saturday’s thrilling Asia Cup match, Pakistan’s Shaheen Shah Afridi grabbed four wickets to spearhead an amazing pace attack and bowl out India for 266.
The 50-over competition opened with India down 66-4 before Ishan Kishan (82) and Hardik Pandya (87) rallied with a partnership of 138 to give their side a respectable total in the first-round encounter. This is a warm-up for the ODI World Cup in India next month.
Left-arm rapid Shaheen chose to bat first in the group encounter, which saw two rain interruptions after a day of cloudy weather. He rocked the opposing top order, taking crucial wickets of captain Rohit Sharma and Virat Kohli.
Along with fellow quicks Naseem Shah and Haris Rauf, who each took three wickets, Shaheen contributed 4-35.
After Kishan, who is left-handed, counterattacked with boundaries, Pandya took the battle back to the opposing bowlers.
To break the stand, Shaheen was handed a two-over burst, but the batsmen held strong, and Kishan hit his fifty to thunderous applause from the fans and irritation from Pakistan, whose on-ground fielding continued to be careless.
After a 33-minute pause, the speed spearhead exacted retribution by bowling the Indian skipper for 11 on the first ball. Earlier, Rohit had struck Shaheen for a couple of fours.
Then, when Kohli (4) inside-edged an approaching ball against his stumps, he hushed the mostly Indian audience.
After a second rain break, Rauf bowled the returning Shreyas Iyer as India fell to 48-3 and shortly after lost opener Shubman Gill for 10.
Additionally, he eventually got rid of Kishan, who had hit nine fours and two sixes in his 81-ball knock.
Despite falling to Shaheen, Pandya persisted in his attack and smashed Rauf for three boundaries in a single over.
After making sixteen runs, number ten Jasprit Bumrah was bowled out by Naseem, and the Indian innings concluded in 48.5 overs.
It started to sprinkle again, so ground crew covered the field as players filed out for the half-time break.