Watch: Shaheen Shah Afridi bowled a blistering new-ball spell in Pakistan's final group match of the 2024 Men's T20 World Cup in Florida today (June 16), taking two wickets in three balls in his opening over.
With rain having washed out much of the action in Florida over the last few days, Pakistan and Ireland managed to get on the park for the final match in Group A. After Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bowl, Shaheen was given the new ball.
He opened up with a full, swinging ball to Andrew Balbirnie who pushed it into the covers. Dragging his length back slightly for the second delivery, Shaheen followed up with a second consecutive dot, beating the inside edge and hitting Balbirnie on his back leg, although sliding down leg.
With his third ball, however, Shaheen sent down a searing in-swinger, coming back through the air to hit the top of off after beating Balbirnie's drive.
Shaheen's next ball to incoming batter Lorcan Tucker was back of a length and was chopped past the leg stump for two runs to give Ireland their first runs of the contest. The fifth delivery of the over struck gold again when Tucker was tempted into a drive, the ball angling across him and taking his outside edge through to Mohammad Rizwan behind the stumps. Shaheen celebrated with his trademark pose, arms outstretches with Ireland 2-2. The final ball of the over to Harry Tector was played out for a dot.
Things went from bad to worse for Ireland in the following over, when Paul Stirling nicked off to Mohammad Amir and gave Rizwan another easy catch. 10 balls into the contest and Ireland were 4-3. A loss for Ireland in this match would see them out of the T20 World Cup without having won a single game, while for Pakistan, despite being already eliminated, it would secure third spot for them in the final Group A standings.
Watch: Shaheen takes two wickets in three balls against Ireland
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