Watch: Shaheen bowls searing yorker to Gurbaz; Afghan batter carried off the field
The left-arm speedster bowled a pitch perfect yorker past Afghan opener Gurbaz in the T20 World Cup warm-up game.
Shaheen Afridi made a roaring return to the cricket field this Wednesday (October 17). The Pakistan speedster sent a peach of an inswinging yorker past the defence of Afghanistan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz in his team's second official T20 World Cup 2022 warm-up match in Brisbane.
Shaheen got perfect yorker evading Gurbaz's downswing to get him dismissed LBW very early into the Afghanistan innings batting effort.
Coming from the over-the-wicket angle for the left-armer, the Pakistan seamer delivered another beautiful swinging full-pitcher that the Gurbaz had no safe answer to.
Having set the batter with ones going away from him, Shaheen Afridi got this one to tail in late at excess speed against the opposition wicketkeeper-batter, who found himself in a real tangle and injured as the ball jammed onto his foot.
The bowler instantly went for an appeal, to which the standing umpire raised his finger, paving way to Shaheen's trademark celebrations where he held his hands high on the side and then offered a flying kiss to the heavens. But the scene was one of pain and ecstasy for Gurbaz.
Shaheen's top yorker gets rid of Gurbaz
It took Shaheen Afridi only five balls into his comeback to get his line and length right with the ball. The young pacer had been out of action from July with a knee injury but got it right on the money upon return to the field for Pakistan.
Bowling from the over-the-wicket angle, he set Gurbaz up with the ones leaving outside off-stump to the right-hander before delivering the sucker punch and dismissing him with the one that tailed in ever so late to pin him in front of the stumps.
The ball jammed onto Gurbaz's frontfoot, evading his downswing, to make it a very straightforward LBW call for the standing umpire. Shaheen was extremely delighted with the breakthrough and relieved to have started his T20 World Cup build-up on the right note.
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But the seamer didn't forget to check on Gurbaz, who was in immediate pain because of the blow to his foot and was seen limping his way off the pitch. Not only Shaheen but also the rest of the Pakistan fielding unit checked how Gurbaz is feeling. Later, the batter was carried off the field on the shoulders of one of his teammates.