VIDEO | Pakistan embarrass themselves again as Hasan Ali pushes a ball for four after Shan Masood stops it

12/29/2018

When it comes to fielding mess-ups, Bangladesh and Pakistan can take the honours directly without any further competition with anyone. Yesterday, Hasan Ali made sure that the Boxing Day Test would have one such moment to remember as he pushed a ball to the boundary after Shan Masood stopped it.

Apart from drawing the series against England in England, 2018 has been a forgettable year for Pakistan cricket and the loss in the Boxing Day Test against South Africa made sure that the end was another low for the Sarfaraz Ahmed-led outfit. Bowlers dominated the Centurion Test from the word go and the result was almost a certainty when they gave the hosts a minuscule target of 149 runs in the second innings.

Dean Elgar and Hashim Amla scored half-centuries each to take the Proteas to win, despite Pakistan giving some late blows to the home team. However, even during the short innings, Pakistan didn’t keep themselves away from being embarrassed as Hasan Ali took the charge of doing that on his shoulders.

The third ball of the 44th over was bowled by Shaheen Afridi, who delivered a short of length delivery on Amla’s chest, to which the South African was happy to pull it towards square-leg. Shan Masood, who was fielding at fine-leg, was quick in his approach and he raced towards the ball to collect before his balance put him away.

However, the ball had lost all its momentum by then and stopped there. Hasan Ali was also chasing the ball and he just had to collect that and throw that back to the wicket-keeper. But the Pakistani pacer didn’t opt for the slide, instead, he stretched to his left hand to flick it in. The ball, on the other hand, got a push and entered the boundary for a four.