T20 World Cup 2021: Shaheen Afridi dismisses Rohit Sharma with a beauty in Dubai

In what was a highly anticipated contest of the T20 World Cup 2021, India entered as favorites to win the game against Pakistan. However, the Men in Green dominated the proceedings to get to a good start. Pakistan’s pacer Shaheen Afridi exuded his fiefdom by chiming in with crucial wickets.

In his opening spell, the speedster removed India’s star batter, Rohit Sharma, on a golden duck. He bowled a full and straight delivery with a good pace. The batter was a tad bit late in putting his bat down and the ball struck the back pad. Pakistan made a huge appeal and the finger went up providing the Men in Green with a pivotal wicket. The wicket in the first over was huge for Pakistan’s confidence and it showed in their fielding.

Here’s the video:

Shaheen Afridi puts Pakistan in the driver’s seat

The pacer breathed fire in his spell and struck with another crucial wicket in the game. After sending Rohit back to the hut, Afridi garnered the audacity of the occasion by showing the way back to the pavilion to the other opener as well. With an unplayable in-swinging Yorker, he made sure the in-form KL Rahul departs early on.

It was a good length delivery and the batter looked to play it across the line but eventually missed it. It went past the thigh pad and hit the stumps. Afridi was all raring after this wicket and ran in to celebrate the big wicket. India was thus reduced to 6-2 in the third over itself.

Post losing early wickets, skipper Virat Kohli and Suryakumar Yadav tried to provide some resistance to the side. However, the latter was dismissed by Hasan Ali who bowled a short-length delivery outside off stump. Looking to hit, the batter only manages to edge it as Rizwan completed a splendid catch behind the wickets by diving across to his right.

Kohli batted superbly through the innings scoring a brilliant half-century and good scoring rate in the last five overs led India to a competitive score of 151 runs in their 20 overs. Rishabh Pant also batted well to up the ante in the middle overs as he smashed 39 runs off 30 deliveries. India will need early wickets in the defence and it would be interesting to watch how the action unfolds.

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