When Sarfraz Ahmed couldn’t grasp the ball because of his ‘nose’

Pakistan wicketkeeper-batsman Sarfraz Ahmed has been under the scanner, especially surrounding his captaincy in Test cricket in recent times. The 31-year-old has also been advised by many to step down and focus on the limited-overs format. However, former cricketers like Wasim Akram have supported the Sind-born cricketer and said that there’s no appropriate replacement of Sarfraz.

Sarfraz has had an indifferent time of late as he is leading the national team in the three-match Test series against South Africa. In the first Test at the SuperSport Park in Centurion, even as the visiting team lost by six wickets, the experienced campaigner had a horrendous outing with the bat. He wasn’t able to open his account and managed to bag a pair, having got dismissed by the fast bowlers.

Sarfraz misses a chance

However, he started the New Year with a knock of 56 runs from 81 balls in the first innings of the second Test at Newlands in Cape Town. In the meantime, he had to encounter a weird moment in the Proteas’ first innings. The incident took place when the hosts amassed a lead of 155 runs with Quinton de Kock on 19 runs and skipper Faf du Plessis, batting on 96 runs from 206 deliveries.

Fast bowler Mohammad Abbas, who made a comeback after the injury layoff, dished out a full-length delivery, but down the leg-side. Du Plessis tried to glance the ball down to the fine-leg region. Nevertheless, the ball traced into Sarfraz’s gloves. Unfortunately, the keeper couldn’t grab the ball cleanly. The leather hit his gloves and then ricocheted into his nose.

The ball ended up on the ground and Sarfraz couldn’t appeal for the catch. Sarfraz checked his nose while the fielders were a tad agitated. It didn’t cost them much as the South African skipper could only add seven more runs to his tally and fell prey to left-arm speedster Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Here is the video

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