Shaheen Afridi had a heated exchange with Matthew Breetzke© X (Twitter)
Shaheen Afridi broke the silence about his heated verbal exchange with Matthew Breetzke during the ODI tri-nation series match between Pakistan and South Africa on Wednesday. The incident occurred in the 28th over of the first innings when Shaheen deliberately got in the way of batter Matthew Breetzke, who ran for a single. Shaheen’s action caused inappropriate physical contact, which led to a heated argument. The Pakistan speedster admitted that he had teased the South African batter in an attempt to unsettle Breetzke and take his wicket. He also clarified that the tension was confined to the field as both players met and shook hands after the match.
“For the first time, Matthew didn’t say anything. I kept teasing him to get a wicket. Whatever happened on the field stayed there. Matthew and I met, shook hands, and became good friends,” Shaheen said during an interview as quoted from Geo News.
In the aftermath of Shaheen’s action, he was fined 25 percent of his match fee. He was found to have breached Article 2.12 of the ICC Code of Conduct for Players and Player Support Personnel, which relates to “inappropriate physical contact with a Player, Player Support Personnel, Umpire, Match Referee or any other person (including a spectator) during an International Match.”
Apart from his heated exchange with Breetzke, Shaheen spoke about Pakistan’s ongoing woes in the death overs of an inning recently exposed in the ongoing tri-nation series.
In the first game of the series against New Zealand, Shaheen and Naseem Shah were handed the responsibility of seeing off the death overs. Glenn Phillips went all guns blazing and hammered Pakistan’s ace guns to walk away 71 runs in the last four overs.
It was a similar story for Pakistan pacers in the encounter against South Africa. Naseem, Mohammad Hasnain, and Khushdil Shah were asked to wrap up the last four overs. The trio combined to give away 46 runs, which lifted South Africa to a herculean 352/5.
“We admit that we haven’t been performing well in the final overs,” Shaheen said on Pakistan’s performance with the ball in death overs.
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