On the first day of Pakistan’s much-awaited Champions One-Day Cup, former captain Babar Azam and star bowler Shaheen Afridi faced each other. Babar bounced back from his poor form, scoring 76 runs from 79 balls, and seemed headed for a century. But Lion’s captain Afridi dismissed him and stopped him from getting a century.
In the 35th over, the left-arm pacer bowled a slower short ball from around the wicket. Babar misjudged the pace but still attempted a pull shot. He mistimed it and was caught by Faisal Akram at the boundary. After grabbing Babar’s wicket, Afridi celebrated by pointing to the sky and flexing his left bicep.
While playing for Faisalabad, Afridi took two wickets and gave away 63 runs in his ten overs. His other wicket was Mohammad Haris who scored 55 runs from 36 balls.
There were earlier reports of a rift between Babar and Afridi. After scoring just 64 runs in the Test series against Bangladesh, Babar bounced back with 76 runs from 79 balls which included nine fours. While playing under Hari’s captaincy, he batted at number 3. When Shan Masood got out, Babar built a 114-run partnership with Tayyab Tahir.
In the run chase, the Lions were bowled out for 203 in 39.3 overs and lost the match by a large margin of 133 runs.
