WATCH - Champions Trophy 2025: Shaheen Afridi's impeccable inswinging yorker sends Rohit Sharma back
This dismissal reminded many of their 2021 T20 World Cup clash at the same venue.
Ace speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi once again showed his brilliance in an India-Pakistan clash, producing a brilliant inswinging yorker to dismiss skipper Rohit Sharma in the ongoing ICC Champions Trophy 2025 clash at the Dubai International Stadium. The magical delivery instantly brought back memories of his similar-looking ball in the 2021 T20 World Cup, where he had trapped Rohit plumb in front for a golden duck.
With a chase of 242, India’s hopes rested on Rohit, who was coming off a decent innings against Bangladesh in the side's tournament opener. The 37-year-old started brilliantly as he had already played a signature pick-up shot for a six and was middling the ball well. In the process, he reached 9,000 runs as an opener in ODIs, becoming only the sixth batter to achieve this milestone.
Afridi initially struggling to extract swing in his first couple of overs, adjusted his line, opting to push the Mumbai batter back with hard lengths before taking out his trump card. The incident occurred in the fifth over. The left-armer delivered a 143 kmph inswinging yorker which swung in late, sneaking between the batter's bat and boot before crashing into the middle stump. Rohit, despite his best efforts to dig it out, had no answer to the quality of the delivery. The Indian skipper's innings ended after adding 20 runs off 15 deliveries, with three boundaries and one six.
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4This dismissal reminded many of their 2021 T20 World Cup clash at the same venue. Back then, Afridi had set up Rohit with a fuller length before nailing an inswinger to trap him LBW. With this dismissal, the Indian batting maestro has been the Pakistani pacer's victim for the third time fifth time, including three times in ODIs and twice in T20Is.
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The match began with, the Men in Green winning the toss and elected to bat first, and managed to post a total of 241, thanks to Saud Shakeel’s 62 and Mohammad Rizwan’s knock of 46. For India Kuldeep Yadav (3/40) and Hardik Pandya (2/31), ensured that the target remained within reach.
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