All hail Afridi
Having batted out of their skins and given Pakistan the difficult task of chasing a total that they had never chased before, Bangladesh thought they had done just enough to break the string of defeats that has been torturing them since the beginning of this year. However, a Shahid Afridi special, which saw the dashing batsman smash seven huge sixes, including three off Bangladesh's best bowler Shakib Al Hasan at a time when the visitors had an asking rate of over ten, left the hosts in agony yet again.
“Honestly, the reason's simple. It's Afridi. If it was any other batsman, it would have been difficult. If he can dispatch Shakib for three sixes, you know that he is one of the best,” exclaimed a desperate looking Mushfiqur at the post-match press conference.
“We hoped for a mis-hit but he changed the game completely. His power is such that even mis-hits went over the boundary line. There is nothing much we can do,” he added.
The captain faced the heat in the press conference regarding the selection of Abdur Razzak -- who gave away 72 runs in his nine including 18 runs in the 48th over -- ahead of Arafat Sunny who was in good nick in the last two matches. Mushfiqur, in his defence, stated that he went for the more experienced player.
“I thought Raj (Abdur Razzak) bhai was unfortunate. Shakib is our best bowler and even he went for three sixes. I think what Raj bhai did in the last ten years, every one knows. He has been an attacking option. He unfortunately bowled length balls. It might happen against any bowler in a high-intensity game,” said Mushfiqur.
“It's difficult to blame one person, because performance-wise everyone goes through a bad patch. But you can't just remove some one right after a bad patch. Sunny bhai is performing well yes, luckily. But Raj bhai is a senior player and he has been delivering the goods for a while, it could have gone either way,” he added.
While Ahmed Shehzad's century laid the platform for Pakistan's record chase, had it not been for Afridi's late hits, Shehzad's effort would have gone in vain. And it was therefore not a surprise when captain Misbahul Haq described Boom Boom's innings as one of the best that he has ever seen.
“He's really playing well and he's cashing in on his form which is really good for us. Everybody knows the kind of player he is when he is in full swing and nobody can stop him. That's really encouraging for us,” said Misbah at the post-match conference.
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