Shadab Khan-Asif Ali head-on collision leads to blunder on-field during Asia Cup Final
Shadab #Shadab
Pakistan fielders had a day to forget on Sunday against Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final when they dropped some relatively easy chances, leading to Sri Lanka getting to 170/6 in 20 overs.
Bhanuka Rajapaksa who was the architect in chief behind rebuilding Sri Lanka’s innings after they had lost 5 wickets before even getting to 100, was dropped twice.
In the first incident, Shadab Khan dropped a dolly and in the second, Asif Ali and Shadab collided with each other in a comedy of errors which led to the ball going over the boundary for a six.
In the 19th over, Mohammad Hasnain bowled an off-cutter and Rajapaksa swung it towards deep mid-wicket.
The two fielders in the deep went for the same ball but Shadab collided with Ali who eventually parries it over the fence as Sri Lanka added six runs more to their tally. Shadab went down on the floor after the coming together while the physio checked him for any sort of concussion. Khan would then go to the sidelines and sit out the final over of the first innings.
In the match, Pakistan pacers started with a bang before Rajapaksa’s brilliant 71 not out took Sri Lanka to a challenging 170 for 6. It was a good toss to win for Babar Azam until Rajapaksa’s calculated assault at the death saw 50 runs being scored off last 4 overs.
Young Naseem Shah (1/40 in 4 overs) and the uber cool Haris Rauf (3/29 in 4 overs) bowled with a lot of pace and fire extracting movement off the track as they broke the backbone of the Lankan batting within the Powerplay overs before Rajapaksa scored one of his finest fifties considering the situation that his team was in.
However, Rajapaksa (71 of 45 balls) and Wanindu Hasaranga (36 off 21 balls) added 58 quick runs after Sri Lanka were left gasping for breath at 58 for 5. Rajapaksa, especially, with his all-round strokeplay gave the Sri Lankan total lot of respectability. He hit six fours and three sixes and the flick off Naseem for a maximum was a treat for the eyes.