'Bowling is alright but now everyone will forget I'm a bowler': Naseem's golden reply to Shastri
After the match, when he was interviewed by former India head coach Ravi Shastri, Naseem spoke about his plans and the hard yards he put in at the nets to hone his batting skills. But the teenager was sure that after his exploits against Afghanistan, people will forget that his primary duty is to bowl quick.
Naseem Shah was the hero for Pakistan on Wednesday night at Sharjah, that too with the bat. The right-arm fast bowler, who had only 59 international runs in 19 matches across formats before the Asia Cup Super 4 match against Afghanistan, did the unthinkable to take his side to the final and knock both Afghanistan and India out of the tournament. Afghanistan were on a roll when Naseem joined Asif Ali in the penultimate over with Pakistan needing 20 runs off 10 balls with just two wickets in hand. The youngster took a single off his first ball to get his senior partner on strike, who hit a six and then got out.
With 11 runs needed to win off 6 balls and one wicket in hand, Naseem knew it was now or never and he had no option but to swing his bat. Fazalhaq Farooqi, who was the best Afghanistan seamer on display with three wickets to his name, bowled a full toss in the first ball of the 20th over and Naseem made a solid connection to deposit the ball well over long-off. Pakistan were right back in it.
The left-arm pacer went for the slower one but it again ended up being another full toss, Naseem hung back and tonked it over long off again to collect back-to-back sixes and finish off the match. He took off his helmet, flung his gloves and went on a roaring run to let the world know about his achievements. His 14 not out off just 4 balls was easily the difference between the two sides in a low-scoring thriller.
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After the match, when he was interviewed by former India head coach Ravi Shastri, Naseem spoke about his plans and the hard yards he put in at the nets to hone his batting skills. But the teenager was sure that after his exploits against Afghanistan, people will forget that his primary duty is to bowl quick.
"Bowling is alright but I think now everyone will forget that I'm a bowler," he told Shastri with a big smile on his face after snatching the narrow 1-wicket win for Pakistan helping his side chase down 130 in 19.2 overs.
Naseem had done a brilliant job with the ball by returning with figures of 1 for 19 in his 4 overs earlier in the day.
"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 we would win today and we would be in the final," he added when questioned by Ravi Shastri about his batting plans.
