Former ACB chief slams Shoaib Akhtar for his comments on Afghanistan fans
Pakistan and Afghanistan played out a heated affair (PC: Twitter)
Former Afghanistan Cricket Chief Executive, Shafiq Stanikzai and Shoaib Akhtar were involved in a feud on Twitter following Pakistan's nerve-wracking victory over Afghanistan on Wednesday in Sharjah.
The crucial Asia Cup 2022 fixture between both teams witnessed Afghanistan scoring 129, with Ibrahim Zadran (35) as the top contributor. In response, Pakistan's top-order succumbed to pressure against a quality Afghan attack.
However, Shadab Khan (36) and Iftikhar Ahmed (30) helped the Men in Green make a fighting comeback. Then, finisher Asif Ali threatened to seal the game with his attacking mindset, but was dismissed by Fareed Malik in the 19th over.
Malik went a little overboard and celebrated the wicket in an aggressive manner in front of Ali. In reply, Ali raised his bat towards Malik and warned to hit him, which certainly ignited a fire among the crowd in the stadium.
With 11 runs needed off the final six balls, pacer Naseem Shah smoked two sixes over the long-off region to take Pakistan into the Asia Cup 2022 Finals.
Following the loss, the crowd of both nations were involved in an ugly exchange in the stands, which has left the cricket fraternity stunned.
Akhtar took to Twitter to share the video (which went viral) to purposely display the Afghan crowd's attitude towards the Pakistani supporters. In his post, he also mentioned Stanikzai and advised them to improve their behaviour to grow in international cricket.
Stanikzai was quick to respond to the tweet by Akhtar, and reckoned that the emotions of the crowd can't be controlled in such matches. Furthermore, he warned the former pacer of not indulging nation's name in any spats in future.
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