Picture Credit: Twitter
Pakistan fast bowler Naseem Shah smashed the winning runs against Afghanistan in the Super 4 game of the Asia Cup 2022. Shah hit back-to-back sixes and confirmed his team's place in the final. The youngster has now decided to auction away the bat he used in the game for generating money to aid the flood victims in Pakistan.
The Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) shared a video on their Twitter account where the 19-year-old pacer’s teammate, Mohammad Hasnain, gifted the bat to Naseem, who declared that he would be putting the bat in the auction.
Check out the video here:
Naseem Shah came into bat at the 18.2 over-mark when Fareed Ahmad dismissed Haris Rauf for zero. Shah then took a single and saw Asif Ali losing his wicket. In the final over, when the Men in Green needed 11 off six balls with only one wicket in hand, Shah smashed two sixes in the first two balls of the final over to snatch the victory for his side. Hence with this win, Pakistan knocked out Afghanistan and India from the tournament and sealed their place in the final.
After the match, Naseem Shah talked about his thought process as he smashed the winning runs for Pakistan. He said: “When I went in to bat I had the belief to hit the sixes. I practice (hitting sixes) and I knew they would bowl yorkers as they had the field up. There needs to be belief, we keep practising in the nets and I also changed my bat, it worked.”
“When I went in Asif was there and my job was to give him strike but once he got out the onus was on me. There is very little belief when you are nine down but I had the self-belief and this will be a memorable game for me. This was an important match as we knew a win today and we would be in the final,” he added.