Young pacer Naseem Shah was the star of the show for Pakistan, but it was not with the ball in hand. He won the match for Babar Azam-led side with the bat, in fact, against Afghanistan in the Super 4 clash of the ongoing Asia Cup. Naseem smashed two sixes off the first two balls of the final over bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi to seal a one-wicket win for Pakistan. The match was one for the ages, and even skipper Babar could not hold his emotions at the post-match presentation.
Speaking at the post-match presentation to former Team India head coach Ravi Shastri, Babar said: “This moment reminds me of Javed Miandad’s six.”
To this, Shastri replied: “I was there that day, thanks for reminding.”
Javed Miandad had hit a final-ball six in the 1986 Austral-Asia Cup off the bowling of India’s Chetan Sharma, and as a result, Pakistan registered a famous victory. Naseem might not have a hit a final-ball six, but still everyone will remember his heroics for the time to come.
Speaking about the match, Babar said: “To be honest, the dressing room was very tensed. The team was walking in and out of the dressing room. Excellent with the way Naseem Shah finished it off.”
“Sharjah is always low-scoring, and Mujeeb and Rashid Khan are two of the best bowlers. We just wanted to take the match deep,” he said about Pakistan’s strategy.
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“The way we started with the ball was excellent. In our batting, we didn’t execute our plans very well, but Naseem was outstanding. At the back of the mind, I have seen Naseem play like this earlier, and I had the belief in him,” the Pakistan skipper said.
Afghanistan were put in to bat first and they posted 129/6 in 20 overs. Chasing 130, Pakistan were cruising at one stage with the score being 87/3 in the 16th over. However, Pakistan collapsed from there to 118/9 in the penultimate over. In the final over, they needed 11 for a victory, and it was Naseem Shah who turned out to be the hero for Pakistan.
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