That was not out in my point of view: Shahid Afridi

Afridi is now Pakistan’s T20 Captain

Pakistan’s T20 Captain Shahid Afridi has expressed his disappointment at the umpiring decision that was handed out to him when he was batting in the one-off T20 against Bangladesh. The skipper came in at number 3 to provide a much-needed impetus to the batting line-up after their sedate start. He scored 12 runs from 9 deliveries before being given out caught behind despite the ball being away from the bat by a fair distance.

"That was not out in my point of view," Afridi said. "Mistakes do happen as we are human beings but these days games can be changed with one single poor decision and may be a different story. But the ICC is there and they are monitoring and evaluating the umpiring. It's not just one decision, there are another two and three, but the match referee is there and it's in their notice."

But at the same time, he refused to put the loss solely on that umpiring decision alone. "We didn't get a good start as their bowlers bowled so well, especially with the new bowler who bowled with variation and exploited the pitch condition. I have always said that partnerships are very important and we didn't capitalise, but still, another 10 to 15 runs on this pitch and the total isn't that bad. Had the bowlers bowled in the right areas and with variation, we wouldn't have gone down that easily," he said.