IPL franchise Punjab Kings brutally trolls Shaheen Afridi after Arshdeep's last-over heroics vs Wade in 5th T20I
IPL franchise Punjab Kings later took a cheeky dig at Shaheen over Arshdeep's heroics with a 2021 T20 World Cup reminder.
Matthew Wade what it takes to finish things off in style under pressure in a chase. He has been in umpteen such situations through his white-ball career. The most notable of it was in the 2021 T20 World Cup semifinal against Pakistan. Chasing 22 runs in the final over against an in-form Shaheen Afridi, Wade smashed the left-arm pacer for three consecutive sixes in an absolute moment of madness to seal Australia's stellar win. On Sunday, on a tricky Bengaluru track, Wade was up against another left-armer, with 10 to chase and 2 wickets in hand in the fifth and final T20I match of the series against India, but a nerveless Arshdeep Singh got the better of the Aussie. IPL franchise Punjab Kings later took a cheeky dig at Shaheen over Arshdeep's heroics with a 2021 T20 World Cup reminder.
The task was equally difficult for Arshdeep who wasn't economical on the Chinnaswamy track against Australia on Sunday. He conceded 37 runs already for just one wicket in three overs. However, with nine runs to defend, Arshdeep dished out two dot deliveries before getting the better of Wade. The Australia skipper was left livid at the umpires after the first delivery as he felt it was a wide ball, but his call went unheard. He was eventually undone by an attempted yorker which he holed out to Shreyas Iyer long-on.
ALSO READ: Arshdeep Singh worried 'being the culprit' if nail-biting last-over against Australia did not go as per plan
The left-arm fast bowler then managed to concede just three singles in the remaining deliveries as India secured a thrilling six-run win to wrap up the series with a 4-1 victory.
Following the over, PBKS, the franchise Arshdeep represents in IPL, shared a video of Wade's dismissal and captioned it: “Not against thus left-arm pacer.”
Recalling the final over, Arshdeep admitted that he felt he would be held as a "culprit" if India had lost owing to his economy rate, but he eventually managed to bounce back by trusting his strength of bowling yorkers.
"I guess for the big part of the game, for almost the first 19 overs, I was thinking that I gave away too many runs and would be the culprit of the game," Arshdeep said on the official broadcast. "But god gave me another chance and I believed in myself. Thanks to god that I defended it and thanks to the staff as well who believed in me."
When asked about his plan for the final over, he added: "To be honest, nothing was going through my mind. Surya [Suryakumar Yadav] bhai told me that whatever happens, happens. The credit goes to our batsmen as well. They gave us a really good total here on a tricky wicket and we had a cushion of an extra 15 to 20 runs."
