Pakistan's premier white-ball left-arm pacer Shaheen Afridi suffered a nasty blow to his left hand while collecting a throw in the third ODI against Australia at Perth Stadium on November 10. Former Pakistan skipper Babar Azam came to Afridi's aid before the physio can rush to the middle as the bowler was in agonising pain.
The incident took place in the 26th over of Australia's innings. Sean Abbott played a shot towards square leg. The fielder threw the ball but the bounce got the better of Afridi and hit him on his left thumb. Babar who was backing up immediately checked in and pulled his finger. But Afridi was in agonising pain as the physio checked the affected area and then sprayed on it. After a brief halt, Afridi was back to bowling. Afridi has been in good form in Australia bagging eight wickets from three ODIs.
Afridi wraps it up
The left-arm pacer was lethal with the new ball. He dismissed Aaron Hardie who was promoted up the order to bat at no.3 in the absence of promiment players who are preparing for Border-Gavaskar Trophy 2024-25. Hardie edged one to Agha Salman in the slip cordon. He wrapped up Australia's innings with the wicket of Abbott and Lance Morris in the 32nd over.
Another batting collapse for Australia
Earlier, Mohammad Rizwan won the toss and opted to bowl first. Once again, Jake Fraser-McGurk disappointed and departed for a single-digit score. He lost his wicket to Naseem Shah. Naseem got the better of stand-in skipper Josh Inglis as well. Matthew Short who was looking to anchor the innings by dismissed by an in-form Haris Rauf.
Cooper Connolly was retired out as he was struck on the finger by Mohamamd Hasnain's short delivery in the 17th over. Experienced campaigners Marcus Stoinis and Glenn Maxwell failed to make a mark. Maxwell became Rauf's victim for the third time in the series. He departed for a two-ball duck. Stoinis could not do much either and edged one to Rizwan off Hasnain's delivery. Adam Zampa showed some resillience but fell into Naseem's trap. As Afridi cleaned up the tail, Australia were bowled out for 140 in the 32nd over.
