PSL | Twitter reacts as Shaheen sounds Rizwan death knell with brilliant setup in battle of Pakistan's stalwarts

SportsCafe Desk

BySportsCafe Desk, SportsCafe Editor

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Perhaps the greatest thing franchise T20 cricket has done for fans is offer regular showdowns between a country's premier bowlers and batters. In the battle between Men in Green's flagbearers in Lahore on Tuesday, it was Shaheen Afridi who came up trumps by dismantling Mohammad Rizwan's stumps.

‌Lahore Qalandars, seeking their first victory of the season after five straight losses, got off to a brilliant start against table-toppers Multan Sultans by snaring the all-important wicket of Mohammad Rizwan in the first over itself. The wicket-keeper batter, ranked number three in the world, was befuddled by a brilliant opening burst by his national team skipper Shaheen Afridi and the latter eventually, brought the saga to an end in handsome fashion on the fifth delivery, leading to ecstatic celebrations.

Shaheen began the match with a gentle outswinger on off stump that was cautiously driven towards cover for no runs. The left-arm quick further got the crowd moving with some extravagant swing on the ensuing delivery that was left alone by Rizwan for good reason, unaware that he was being setup for a death blow. Shaheen angled two inswingers thereafter down Rizwan's pads, one of which beat the 31-year-old to thump into his pads while the other glanced off the thigh pad towards the boundary. With Rizwan clearly struggling to read the pacer, Afridi brought the shutters down with a ball on a similar line to the first two outswingers, only this time flicking his wrist inwards to generate one and a half degrees of swing -- the most amongst the five deliveries -- to clip the inside edge of a driving Rizwan and shatter the stumps.

Rizwan was left peering back at the stumps to figure out what he had just experienced while Shaheen wheeled away with his finger pointed high towards the crowd and eventually breaking out into his trademark eagle celebration, much to Twitterati's delight. 

Trapped him

Duck

What a beauty

Reminds KL Rahuls wicket

Packing

Captian vs Captian

Goes for duck

Bowled

Bleed blue jersey

First over wicket

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