Asia Cup 2022: Pakistan’s Asif Ali raised his bat to beat Afghanistan pacer Fareed Malik in anger – Watch

Afghanistan were firmly in control of the match till the last over, reducing Pakistan to 118 for nine. But, Naseem had other plans as he hit Fazalhaq Farooqi for two consecutive sixes to knock both Afghanistan and India out of the final in the six-nation tournament.

With two wins from as many games, both Pakistan and Sri Lanka have sealed their places in the final of the tournament to be held on Sunday (September 11). India and Afghanistan will lock horns in their final Super 4 match on Thursday, which has been rendered inconsequential.

While both Afghanistan and Pakistan will remember the low-scoring game going down the wire for continuing to fight. However, an on-field scuffle between two players from opposite camps gave a bitter taste to a memorable game of cricket.

Pakistan batter Asif Ali and Afghanistan pacer Fareed Ahmad Malik were involved in a heated exchange of words which soon turned physical as the former lifted his bat in anger over the latter.

ASIF ALI pic.twitter.com/AFYp90ZFkV

— Fåtïma P T I ???? (@FtimaPTI1) September 7, 2022

What happened?

In the 19th over of the second innings, Fareed Ahmad had bowled Haris Rauf on the second delivery and gave an upper hand to his team in the defence of 129. Two balls later, Asif Ali dispatched the ball for a maximum and released some pressure off his team. But the bowler came back strongly on the next ball and bowled a short-pitched delivery which the batter tried to pull and got a leading edge. The ball sailed towards fine leg and fielder Ibrahim Zadran took the catch and Pakistan lost their ninth wicket in the run chase. Ali was Pakistan’s last recognised batter to finish the game but failed.

Jubilant with his second wicket in his final over, Ahmad gave the batter some send-off but that didn’t go down well with Ali. The right-handed batter didn’t like the reaction from the opposition pacer and raised his bat in anger and beat the bowler. The players and umpires intervened and the players were separated.

In the next over, Naseem Shah struck lusty blows on the first two deliveries of Farooqi’s over and guided his team home. After hitting the winning shot, Naseem was jubilant and looked peeved at the Afghan bowler and celebrated the win along with his teammates. The 19-year-old cricketer – who made his T20I debut in this tournament – was caught on camera getting calmed down by the support staff after the match ended.

While fans kept taking the side of their favourite players on social media and blamed one another for demeaning the spirit of the game. However, the match referee will certainly take cognisance of the incident and might penalise both parties.

Later, videos on social media also emerged in which Afghanistan supporters were seen beating up Pakistan fans. They even caused some damage to the stadium property.

This is what Afghan fans are doing.
This is what they’ve done in the past multiple times.This is a game and its supposed to be played and taken in the right spirit.@ShafiqStanikzai your crowd & your players both need to learn a few things if you guys want to grow in the sport. pic.twitter.com/rg57D0c7t8

— Shoaib Akhtar (@shoaib100mph) September 7, 2022

Former Pakistan cricketer Shoaib Akhtar took to his Twitter handle and captioned the video, “This is what Afghan fans are doing. This is what they’ve done in the past multiple times. This is a game and it’s supposed to be played and taken in the right spirit.
@ShafiqStanikzai your crowd & your players both need to learn a few things if you guys want to grow in the sport.”