The former captain of the Pakistan cricket team, Inzamam-ul-Haq, has come down hard at the fast bowler of Lahore qalandar Shaheen Afridi, for promoting himself to number 5 during the PSL match against Quetta Gladiators on Sunday. Despite scoring an amazing half-century in 28 balls, Shaheen Afridi faced the wrath of the former captain as Inzamam felt the captain and Abdullah Shafique consumed way too many deliveries. This led them away from the position where they could easily score above 200 to put 166 runs at the loss of 7 wickets on the board.
Inzamam stressed that a mere look at the scorecard of Qalandars would glorify the efforts of both Shaheen and Shafique, but in reality, they did more harm than good to the team.
An annoyed Inzamam said that the partnership between Abdullah and Shaheen, if you look closely at the scorecard, looks very impressive, scoring 55 runs in 34 balls and others scoring 59 runs in 39 balls. But the scorecard doesn’t do it justice.”
He said, “Both of them played almost 14 overs, and all they could take the total to was 167, whereas it should have been 200-plus.”
Shafique, who came to bat at number 3, remained unbeaten on 59 in 39 balls at a strike rate of 151.28. After this, when he was joined by Shaheen, who scored a half-century in 28 balls, Qalandar scored 69 after losing three wickets. With 10.2 overs left in the innings, they could only add 97 more runs to the team, even though Shaheen and Shafique added 91 runs for the fourth wicket.
The Former Pakistan captain questioned whether the Qalandars could afford individual features over the team’s efforts as the power hitters like David Wiese and Sikandar Raza were lined up to come in next.
The former captain of the Pakistan cricket team further added, “Shaheen coming in to bat at number 5, but scoring at that speed is not good for the team. The score could have been better if you had specialists such as Wiese and Raza. Oh, bhai tez khel. They should take care of one big fact. So if you start getting into the individual efforts, the team will go for a toss.”
Lahore Qalandars, who have only one victory from the total of ten matches they have played were already out from the race to the playoffs and have also finished at the bottom of the points table. Although some league matches are still left, it would be insufficient for them to save themselves from the wooden spoon.
