Pakistan star Shahid Afridi, who retired from international cricket two years ago, received a guard of honour at Lord's as he led World XI in a Hurricane relief charity match against West Indies on Thursday. Despite losing the match by 72 runs, Afridi won the hearts of his fans with his overwelmingly hilarious reply to former England captain and commentator Nasser Hussain when he asked if he had any plans of a comeback.
"No that's it. You can see my situation with the injury," the 38-year-old was spotted saying in a video, which is being widely circulated on the internet.
Afridi, who has scored 11,196 international runs and claimed 541 wickets for Pakistan, was appointed the captain of the World XI side after England’s Eoin Morgan withdrew due to a finger injury.
The all-rounder claimed one wicket and scored 11 runs but failed to guide his team to a victory against mighty West Indies.
West Indies all-rounder Kesrick Williams claimed three big wickets, while T20 stars Andre Russell and Samuel Badree chipped in with two wickets each as West Indies outdid a star-studded World XI team by 72 runs in one-off the Hurricane relief T20 match at the Lord's on Friday.
The match was organised to raise funds for the refurbishment of five cricket stadia in the Caribbean that were damaged by Hurricanes Irma and Maria in 2017.
Put in to bat, the West Indians rode on a solid 75-run opening stand between Chris Gayle (18) and Evin Lewis (58 from 26 balls; 4x5, 6x5) and vital contributions from Marlon Samuels, Dinesh Ramdin and Andre Russell to put a strong 199/4 in their 20 overs.
In reply, only three World XI batsmen could manage to reach the double figures to be bundled out for a meagre 127 in 16.4 overs. (Read Full Match Report)
