Asia Cup: Shahid Afridi's late burst sends India packing

Pakistan cricketer Sahid Afridi (3R) celebrates with his teammates after winning the sixth match of the Asia Cup one-day cricket tournament between India and Pakistan at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Dhaka on March 2, 2014.

Nine times out of ten, one would have expected the mercurial Shahid Afridi to send one of his characteristic slogs into the waiting hands of a boundary rider when his team needed him to stay calm at the crease during a tight run chase. However, in today’s high profile encounter between India and Pakistan, it was the turn of Afridi to exhibit the wreckage that he can cause in the opposition camp with the one golden chance that remains after the aforesaid nine are wasted in trifles and recklessness. With two towering sixes, one on either side of the sight screen in the last over of a cliffhanger, ‘boom boom’ sealed a memorable win for the Pakistanis, who have for long been hungry to vanquish the Indians in a major ICC event.

The Indians were patchy right from the very start of the match as Virat Kohli lost the toss for the second consecutive big game in the ongoing Asia Cup. Even though Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma started off brightly, Pakistan started making inroads into the fragile Indian batting all too soon following the early dismissal of Dhawan in the 3rd over, who was trapped leg before wicket to an apparently benign Mohammed Hafeez delivery.

Virat Kohli had an uneasy stay at the crease that lasted 11 deliveries and ended in an unsavoury fashion when the Indian skipper tried to run a rising Mohammad Talah delivery to third man in the 10th over. In the mean time, Rohit kept producing belligerent pick up shots over square leg and majestic lofted drives over the bowler’s head.

An untimely end to a brilliant half-century from Rohit in the 20th over handed the initiative over to the Pakistanis, who wasted no time in tightening the screws during the middle overs. The pressure that they had created on the inexperienced Indian middle order brought about the wicket of Ajinkya Rahane, just as the team score had managed to scamper past 100 in the 23rd over.

Ambati Rayudu then got together with Dinesh Kartik and steadied the Indian ship with a matured innings of 58 before the batting powerplay resulted in a forced error from Kartik right at the stroke of what seemed to be India launching into an attack after the sloppy middle overs. The wayward Indian innings was lent the much needed momentum at the end by a breezy 52 from Ravindra Jadeja, which propelled a sagging scoreline to 245.

The start to the Pakistani chase, contrary to popular expectations, was a treat to the eyes; Sharjeel Khan and Ahmed Shehzad flayed both the spinners and faster bowlers with unequivocal ease. Ravichandran Ashwin produced a timely breakthrough with one of his eerie carom balls to upset the furniture of Sharjeel; however, an opening stand of 71 in 11 overs was more than what Pakistan would have hoped for.

An excruciatingly tight spell of leg spin bowling from Amit Mishra kept Pakistan on a tight leash for some time and ultimately produced the wicket of Shehzad, against the run of play, in the 15th over. This wicket was enough to create a familiar wave of panic in the Pakistan middle order, which was soon accentuated by the disastrous run out of Misbah-ul-Haq eight balls later. Umar Akmal soon added fuel to the fire of instability in the Pakistan camp with a reckless shot after being forced to stay put by the pinpoint accuracy of Mishra and Ashwin.

The stage for the Afridi blitzkrieg was set by the ever reliant Mohammed Hafeez and youngster Sohaib Maqsood, both of whom took calculated risks in the middle overs to steer Pakistan to 200 by the 44th over. The partnership was broken when a top edged sweep from Hafeez landed straight into the diving hands of Bhuvneshwar Kumar at fine leg. Sohaib Maqsood’s run out in the very next over compounded Pakistan’s problems at a crucial juncture – and tipped the scales in favour of India yet again – before Shahid ‘Lala’ Afridi took centre stage and decided to send the flabbergasted Indian fielders on a leather hunt in the last five overs. The rest, as they say, is indeed history!