Hasan Ali opens up about infamous dropped catch in T20 World Cup semifinal

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Pakistan enjoyed a splendid run in the 2021 T20 World Cup - winning all five of their group stage matches, which included victories against arch-rivals India and New Zealand.

The Men in Green laid a strong foundation as they marched through to the next round, facing Australia in the semifinal.

While chasing a 175-run target posted by Pakistan, Australia struggled but pulled back the game towards the end thanks to Marcus Stoinis and Matthew Wade.

Wade scored the inning of his life where he contributed 41* from 17 deliveries, an inning which could have ended had Hasan Ali held on to the catch off of Shaheen Afridi in the penultimate over.

Following the loss, Hasan Ali was made the scapegoat and a lot of abuse was hurled towards him on social media.

The pacer has opened up about the incident for the first time and said that he "wasn't able to sleep for days" following the dropped catch.

"It was the tough moment of my career and it was quite difficult for me to forget. I haven't revealed this to anyone until now but I didn't sleep for two days, my wife was with me and he was tense as I was not sleeping," said Hasan Ali.

"I was quiet and sitting at the side as the dropped catch was appearing in my mind continuously but while traveling to Bangladesh I told myself that I should move on," he added.

The right-arm pacer revealed that he was joined by Shaheen Afridi, who was also an emotional mess as he conceded 22 runs from the penultimate over.

"All my teammates are aware of how I approach the games and that I don't take the matches lightly. I prepare well and I always try to perform for Pakistan. After the match, I was crying and so was Shaheen; it was an extremely sad moment," revealed Hasan.

"Shoaib bhai came to me and told me that you are a tiger and that I shouldn't fall. In addition to that, I also received a lot of support on social media which helped me ease through the pain," added Hasan.