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Punjab Kings engage in lighthearted banter with Shaheen Afridi following Arshdeep Singh's impressive bowling performance against Matthew Wade in the fifth T20I.
Matthew Wade is renowned for his knack for finishing games with style, especially in high-pressure situations. One of his standout moments was in the 2021 T20 World Cup semi-final against Pakistan. In a nail-biting situation where Australia needed 22 runs to win from the last over bowled by Shaheen Afridi, Wade smashed three consecutive sixes to secure the victory.
In a recent T20I series against India, facing left-arm bowler Arshdeep Singh, Wade couldn't replicate his success. Needing 10 runs to win with 2 wickets left, Arshdeep outplayed Wade. The IPL team Punjab Kings later humorously teased Shaheen Afridi, recalling Wade's heroics in the T20 World Cup.
Arshdeep Singh faced a challenging task in the final over equally challenging to Shaheen Shah Afridi. He had already given up 37 runs for just one wicket in his previous three overs. However, with only 9 runs to defend, Arshdeep bowled two dot balls before outwitting Matthew Wade. Wade was upset with the umpires after the first ball, believing it should have been called a wide, but his protest was ignored. He was eventually dismissed by an attempted yorker, which he skied to Shreyas Iyer at long-on.
Not against this ????-??? ?????, Matthew Wade ?pic.twitter.com/bggH4rZEdK
— Punjab Kings (@PunjabKingsIPL) December 3, 2023
Recalling the final over, Arshdeep admitted that he felt he would be held as a "culprit" if India had lost owing to his economy rate, but he eventually managed to bounce back by trusting his strength of bowling yorkers.
"I guess for the big part of the game, for almost the first 19 overs, I was thinking that I gave away too many runs and would be the culprit of the game," Arshdeep said on the official broadcast. "But god gave me another chance and I believed in myself. Thanks to god that I defended it and thanks to the staff as well who believed in me."
When asked about his plan for the final over, he added: "To be honest, nothing was going through my mind. Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] bhai told me that whatever happens, happens. The credit goes to our batsmen as well. They gave us a really good total here on a tricky wicket and we had a cushion of an extra 15 to 20 runs."
Also Read: List of all 20 teams qualified for the T20 World Cup 2024
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