IPL franchise takes a dig at Shaheen Afridi

India's Arshdeep bowled an excellent final over, in which he gave away just three runs and picked up the wicket of Australian captain Matthew Wade

PHOTO: AFP

India's Shreyas Iyer scored a half-century and fast bowlers Mukesh Kumar and Arshdeep Singh took a combined five wickets as the home side beat Australia by six runs in the final Twenty20 International to deny the visitors a consolation win on Sunday.

Australia, chasing 160 in Bangalore, looked on course for victory as Ben McDermott hit a knock of 54 but the chase was derailed when the 28-year-old tried to hammer Arshdeep (2-40) for six and ended up holing out to long-off.

Once McDermott departed, Kumar (3-32) struck twice in quick succession to leave Australia reeling on 129-7 before Arshdeep bowled an excellent final over in which he gave away just three runs and picked up the wicket of visiting captain Matthew Wade.

Seizing the moment, Arshdeep's IPL franchise, Punjab Kings, took a subtle swipe at Pakistan's left-arm pacer, Shaheen Afridi. Wade had been a formidable opponent for Afridi, shattering Pakistan's T20 World Cup title dreams by hitting three consecutive sixes off the left-arm pacer in the 2021 semi-final, leading Australia into the finals.

Punjab Kings shared a video of Arshdeep dismissing Wade on the social media platform X, accompanied by the caption, "Not against this 𝐥𝐞𝐟𝐭-𝐚𝐫𝐦 𝐩𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐫, Matthew Wade."