“Iftikhar Dhoni Ki Tarah Khel Raha Hain Par End Me….”- Pakistan legend makes a HUGE remark on Iftikhar Ahmed

“Iftikhar Dhoni Ki Tarah Khel Raha Hain Par End Me….”- Pakistan legend makes a HUGE remark on Iftikhar Ahmed

Iftikhar Ahmed (L) and MS Dhoni (R)

Pakistan’s middle-order in the shortest format is their main crisis. They heavily rely on their opening duo Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and when these two get dismissed cheaply, the middle-order batters also fail.

After the nine-wicket loss to New Zealand in the tri-series on Tuesday, Pakistan’s legendary spinner Saeed Ajmal criticized the middle order for their lack of effort. He particularly spoke in detail about Iftikhar Ahmed and compared him with Indian great MS Dhoni. 

According to Ajmal, Iftikhar starts a slow inning like Dhoni but the latter compensates for it by hitting huge shots; If Iftikhar tries to play big shots to recover for the dot balls, he and Shaan Masood end up giving their wickets.

“Iftikhar plays like MS Dhoni but couldn’t end the innings like MS used to. [Dhoni] used to take singles and hit sixes towards the end to compensate for them. Here, Iftikhar plays 10 dot balls, Shan Masood plays 5-7 dot balls, and when they try to recover by hitting big shots, they get out,” Ajmal said on his official YouTube channel as he criticised the knock.

“Iftikhar scored 27 runs off as many balls and he got out in the last over. Where do you stand?” he further stated.

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Pakistan vs New Zealand match recap

Iftikhar Ahmed
NZ vs PAK

Pakistan opted to bat first and added only 130/7 in 20 overs at the Hagley Oval. Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan could add only 16 and 21 runs respectively. Shan Masood scored 14 runs, Shadab Khan (8), Iftikhar Ahmed (27), and Asif Ali (25*).

New Zealand lost only the wicket of Finn Allen who scored the most runs for his team. Allen played 42 balls to score 62 runs with six sixes and a four. Devon Conway and Kane Williamson played unbeaten knocks of 49 and nine runs respectively, chasing the 131-run target comfortably.

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