‘Shaheen Afridi has both swing and pace’ – Matthew Hayden clarifies his ‘Indian batters faced 130 kmph deliveries in IPL’ comment

Shaheen Afridi spitted venom with the ball during the high-voltage clash against India and took a match-winning three-wicket haul. He dismissed big guns like Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli as Pakistan thumped their arch-rivals by 10 wickets in their maiden first assignment of T20 World Cup 2021. This also brought an end to Pakistan’s long-running losing streak against India in World Cup events.

Speaking of Shaheen’s spectacular show, former Australian opener and Pakistan’s batting consultant for the competition, Matthew Hayden made a slightly controversial statement. He opined that India’s top order struggled against Afridi because they were majorly facing deliveries bowled at 130km/h in the recently concluded Indian Premier League (IPL) 2021 and the Pakistan pacer was much quicker.

“They (the Indian batters) had been facing 130km/h deliveries for the last month during the IPL. It’s a different cup of tea when you are facing someone running and bowling at Shaheen Shah Afridi’s pace. They were the best two balls that I’ve seen in five weeks. A fast in-swinging yorker and the courage that it takes to bowl that delivery against Rohit Sharma with the new ball is admirable,” Hayden told Fox Cricket.

Most IPL teams do have genuine speedsters: Matthew Hayden

With IPL featuring T20 stalwarts from different parts, Hayden’s viewpoint raised a lot of eyebrows. Nevertheless, the former Australian cricketer came up with a clarification after CricTracker’s official Instagram page shared his statement. The 49-year-old said most of the IPL franchises do have genuine speedsters, citing examples of Lockie Ferguson, Anrich Nortje, Avesh Khan, and Mohammed Siraj. However, he asserted what makes Afridi different is his ability to swing the ball with pace.

“Nortje, Ferguson, Siraj, Avesh. Most IPL teams do have a genuine speeders. Pace is one weapon for sure, the other is swing and Afridi has both. It’s exciting to watch this type of bowling and sadly you don’t see it too often in the modern game,” commented Hayden on CricTracker’s Instagram post.

Meanwhile, Pakistan have been on a roll in this competition. After thrashing India, they took down New Zealand by five wickets. With the other teams in Group 2 being Namibia, Scotland, and Afghanistan, it would be safe to state that Pakistan are certain to feature in the semi-finals.