IND vs AFG | Twitter reacts as Shahidi’s street-smarts bail Afghanistan out of trouble with two free hits

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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When a well-oiled machine such as India is on song, even the best teams often choke in the stranglehold. However, Hashmatullah Shahidi displayed exemplary game awareness on Wednesday to find an unusual chink in India’s armour involving flouting of the rules that helped Afghanistan regain momentum.

India were well on top of their Asian counterparts Afghanistan in the World Cup encounter at Arun Jaitley Stadium after three early wickets had the visitors reeling at 63/3. While the incumbent batter Rahmat Shah seemed to stabilize the ship alongside the incoming skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi, the duo struggled to score consistently against the lethal spin duo of Ravindra Jadeja and Kuldeep Yadav. However, just as the pressure was coming to a boil, a rare act of carelessness from Rohit Sharma and co. in the 22nd over allowed the team their first boundary in 53 balls. 

Jadeja started the over by flighting a delivery full and outside off-stump to Shahidi who was batting on 16 off 27 deliveries at the time, having failed to send the ball to the ropes a single time during his stay at the crease. He finally broke the shackles by going down on his knees and sweeping a hard thus managing to find a thick top-edge that ran away from over. The shot was uncharacteristic for an orthodox batter such as Shahidi but his reaction instantly after explained the logic behind it.

Shahidi rushed to the umpire to indicate that the Men in Blue had just four fielders inside the circle as opposed to the minimum requirement of five between overs 10 and 40. The umpire obliged by declaring the delivery a no-ball, a result the Afghan skipper was already confident of prior to the delivery, thereby effectively earning his time two free hits. Twitterati was all praise for the cricketing IQ displayed by Shahidi and heaped praise on him on social media.

That was clever from the batsman!







That was not Jaddu's fault tho!

Hahaha!

That was really not expected from India!

He's doing good out there!

Jaddu!

That was good hit!

Haiii haiii!

Isss kaam keliyee toh waqt hii wat haii!🤣🤣

LOL! Struggling.

Something is fishy!

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