'That One Is Honestly A Special Ball': Shaheen Afridi Reveals How He Planned His Spell Against India

T20 World Cup 2021 has been full of surprises where underdogs have stood up and superstars have gone down. It all started when Pakistan defeated India on 24th October in Dubai. 

The wrecker-in-chief for Pakistan was the 21-year-old new ball bowler, Shaheen Afridi. He set up the game with his spell of 3/31 in four overs, including the wickets of Rohit Sharma, KL Rahul, and Virat Kohli. 

The wickets of Rohit and Rahul came inside the powerplay, in fact in the first two overs of Shaheen's spell. While Rohit got out on a golden duck in the first over of the match, Rahul scored just three. 

Talking to The Telegraph about his memorable spell, Shaheen revealed the planning behind the first two wickets. 

“You can swing only for one or two overs then you can't swing the white ball. That’s why I come and bowl first over because if you take a little bit of swing, a little bit of seam, you can easily take batsmen out,” Afridi explained. 

“When Rahul got the single and Rohit came on strike, my mind straightaway said I can bowl this yorker. Maybe he misses. If there's a little bit of swing I can get him.”

He bowled a yorker, Rohit missed, and was adjudged LBW. 

Ahead of the next over, Shaheen says he consulted Shoaib Malik for which ball to bowl since there wasn't much swing. 

“I asked Shoaib, can I bowl fuller? He said to me ‘Shaheen, don't bowl fuller, just try to bowl length here, yeah?’ So I said, yeah not too much swing first over, so let me try to bowl the ball."

Shaheen bowled a length ball which came back in sharply and surprised Rahul, who missed and the ball crashed into the stumps. “Thank you. It's not my wicket, it's your wicket,” Shaheen said to Malik.