Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi said his match three-wicket haul against India in the recent T20 World Cup was the most memorable performance of 2021 while he revealed that he cried after Mathew Wade hits me three sixes.
Pakistani star left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi became the first Pakistani who wins the ICC player of the Year award, said his match winnings three-wicket haul against India in the recent T20 World Cup was the most memorable performance of 2021. Shaheen took three wickets and sent out the Indian team in the trouble. He picked the wickets of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli while Pakistan won the game by 10 wickets. He played the main role in the win of Pakistan by picking the top three Indian batsman wickets.
“I had many good performances including five-fors in Tests. But the most memorable one for me would be the match we won against India,”
he told the ARY news channel.
“It was a great year for me and hopefully you will see good performances in 2022 too.”
Afridi described the India opener KL Rahul’s wicket as his most prized scalp in the T20 World Cup.
He said he was expecting to get the wicket of Rohit Sharma early but he enjoyed the dismissal of KL Rahul the most in the mega event in the UAE.
“There was a little swing and we knew we could get Rohit early on but the ball that dismissed Rahul even surprised me,”
The 21-year-old pacer who enjoyed great success in 2021 in all three formats, including the magic spell against India, said senior team-mate Shoaib Malik gave him advice before he got the wicket of KL Rahul.
“The ball was not swinging that much to, be honest but I was bowling at a good pace and Malik told me to pitch it up and let the ball do something,”
he recalled.
“Even I didn’t expect the ball to do so much when it got through the defense of KL Rahul. It was a big wicket for me.”
He further said that in international cricket you would need to produce some magic ball to get the wickets of a quality batsman like Rohit Sharma or Babar Azam.
“It was hugely satisfying for me to also take the wicket of Kohli later on but by then he had got a half-century.”
Asked repeatedly if he felt the Indian team was scared after the early two wickets, Afridi said he would say they came under a lot of pressure.
He more explained that he had cried after scoring three sixes at the crucial moment of the match in the semi-final in the T20 World Cup.
“Yes, I cried after Matthew Wade hit me for three sixes and we lost the match. It was heartbreaking for us as a team.”
Afridi described Babar as one of the best batsmen he had ever bowled to, saying
“it takes a special ball to get him out.”