Watch: Asif Ali Has His Javed Miandad Moment As He Almost Hits Fareed Ahmed With The Bat After Getting A Send Off

Pakistani cricketer Asif Ali almost emulated legend Javed Miandad and came very close to hitting Afghanistani bowler Fareed Ahmed during their tense clash in the Asia Cup 2022 which went right down to the wire and saw the Men in Green qualifying for the finals against Sri Lanka after winning by just 1 wicket.

Babar Azam had won the toss and chose to bowl first, a decision that proved to be fruitful as Afghanistan could only make 129/6. Afghan team made two changes as Azmatullah Omarzai and Fareed Ahmed came into the XI, while Pakistan came in unchanged.

Haris Rauf with 2/26 was the pick of Pakistani bowlers as Ibrahim Zadran with 35 and Hazratullah Zazai with 21 were the only batters from the Afghanistan side to go past the 20-run mark. Rashid Khan with 18 and Rahmanullah Gurbaz with 17 were the other contributors.

Pakistani Win The Match By 1 Wicket With Asif Ali Almost Getting Into A Fight With Fareed Ahmed

Fazalhaq Farooqi gave Afghanistan a great start as Babar Azam fell for golden duck and Fakhar Zaman was run out for 5 runs. Mohammad Rizwan with 20 and Iftikhar Ahmed with 26 stabilized the innings.

But Afghan bowlers Fareed Ahmed and Rashid Khan made constant inroads in the Pakistani line-up. Shadab Khan made a fiery 36 and Asif Ali made 16 in 8 balls before Fareed and Fazalhaq removed them and put Pakistan in a spot of bother.

But it was Naseem Shah, who hit two back-to-back sixes in the last over to see Pakistan through the finish line with just one wicket in hand, and Pakistani celebrated with gusto. With this win, Pakistan qualified for the final of the Asia Cup 2022, where they will meet Sri Lanka, as this win knocked out India and Afghanistan, who have lost two matches thus far in the Super 4s stage.

However, the match saw some tense moments in the final overs as in the 19^th over’s 5^th ball, Fareed Ahmed had Asif Ali caught at short fine leg by Karim Janat. This came after Ali had hit Fareed for a six and as a result, the bowler gave Asif a mouthful of send-off with the choicest of words.

This sent Asif Ali into a rage as he tried to punch Fareed and also threatened to hit Fareed with the bat, emulating Javed Miandad who had similarly almost hit Dennis Lillee with the bat during a Test match as well. The umpires, the Afghan players and the Pakistani batter separated the two to avoid physical alteration.

Here is the video:

pic.twitter.com/4cLFHDFj9h

— pant shirt fc (@shirt_fc) September 7, 2022

Also Read: “Focus Is On The Duleep Trophy” – Ajinkya Rahane Not Thinking About Test Recall