Former Pakistan cricketer Shahid Afridi, famous for frequently stirring up controversies along with his outspokenness, has shown how he got the better of Ravichandran Ashwin at the Indo-Pak battle of their Asia Cup 2014. In the game that went down to the cable, Pakistan narrowly edged beyond their arch-rival, courtesy last-over heroics out of Shahid Afridi.
Virat Kohli was leading the Indian group in the lack of MS Dhoni, who missed the tournament because of injury. Batting first, India were limited for a fair amount of 254. The victory for Pakistan appeared almost inevitable.
But, disciplined bowling from Indian spinners added components of turns and twists into the enthralling battle. Pakistan took 13 runs in the last two overs to win the competition with their explosive batsman Afridi about the crease.
For the past over, Kohli gave this duty to Ashwin, that was arguably the best bowler for India from the game. The off-spinner delivered Saeed Ajmal straight back into the pavilion in his first chunk.
I advised him not to pick the sweep shot, but he ended up playing lost his wicket. Ashwin was well, and he had been getting some buy from the trail also. Subsequently, Junaid Khan arrived in. I told him precisely the same thing, simply get a single.
However, what transpired later was a remarkable finishing touch for his cameo out of Afridi, hitting two successive sixes to knock India out of this championship.
The mythical all-rounder said the way he tricked the Indian bowler not to bowl his typical off-spin.
I wanted to deceive him that he believes that I’m going to hit the leg. The theory behind it was to induce the off-spinner not to bowl his own off-spin. And Ashwin did precisely that. I ran it on the additional cover area to get a six.”
“The following delivery was a challenging one, and I didn’t get it at the center. I was in 2 minds, and I had been thinking, will it move on the ropes or not. However, in the long run, the ball sailed across the fielder to get a six.
Pakistan’s chills came to a sudden end after losing to Sri Lanka in the final of this championship.
Meanwhile, the Asia Cup, scheduled to start later this season, stands and has since been postponed to 2021 because of the COVID-19 pandemic.
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