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Naseem Shah was hopeful that Pakistan could pull off a comfortable victory over Afghanistan in their ODI World Cup face-off on October 23. When the match was underway at Chepauk, Naseem shared an optimistic post on X which well and truly highlighted his faith in the team.
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“Believe me, Pakistan will win from here. Any doubts?” the 20-year-old pacer wrote. The match, however, took a U-turn in the second innings where Afghanistan had to chase down a 283-run target to secure the win. Their top order appeared in swashbuckling form, with three batters registering 50-plus scores. Afghanistan ultimately won the match by 8 wickets, registering one of the biggest upsets of this World Cup.
After the match was wrapped up, opposition fans showed no mercy to Naseem Shah as they rallied to his post and flooded the comment section with a plethora of memes. Here are some notable reactions:
Naseem Shah was earlier slated to represent Pakistan in this ODI World Cup. But he was ruled out of the tournament owing to a shoulder injury. Following the humiliating loss to Afghanistan, Pakistan captain Babar Azam spoke about the absence of Naseem Shah. During the post-match press conference, Babar acknowledged that his team is certainly missing the service of Naseem, who has been their new-ball pacer for quite some now.
“We are missing Nasim a lot. But apart from that, our bowling lineup is one of the best. But I think we are not able to click,” Babar said while referring to Pakistan’s underwhelming performance in this World Cup.
Looking at the Afghanistan game, Pakistan made a positive start to the match, powered by half-centuries from Abdullah Shafiq and Babar Azam. Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed also made some crucial contributions to the scoresheet, helping Pakistan post a worth-fighting 282 runs on the board.
Before Afghanistan could begin their chase, it looked like a 50-50 game. The scenario completely changed when Rahmanullah Gurbaj and Ibrahim Zadran pulled off a commendable start during the powerplay. The duo stitched a 130-run partnership before Gurbaz left for the pavilion for 65 runs.
Zadran had stuck to the crease and went on to score 87 runs off 113 balls. Pakistan pacer Hasan Ali finally got rid of Zadran when Afghanistan had already reached 190 runs. Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi then took over the charge and joined hands with Shah to complete the remaining task.
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