Pakistan have never been known to be the best fielding side. Time and again, their players have been trolled for poor fielding especially in big tournaments like World Cup. The ongoing mega event in India is no different whatsoever as Pakistan's fielding has been very dismal to say the least. They dropped catches against Australia and the ground fielding in the Afghanistan game in Chennai has been poor too.
While there have been multiple instances of their players messing up on the field, Pakistan pacer Shaheen Afridi especially has been at the centre stage of criticism for his gaffe at the boundary line. In the 16th over of Afghanistan's batting innings, Rahmanullah Gurbaz pulled a half-tracker from Shadab Khan towards mid-wicket boundary. Shaheen ran to stop the ball and hialriously overran without stopping the ball which thudded into the boundary cushions. It was certainly a poor effort from Afridi given the situation as Afghanistan had started their 283-run chase well and this kind of fielding didn't help the team at all.
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Here are some reactions on Pakistan's fielding:
Meanwhile, Pakistan, after opting to bat first, posted a competitive total of 282 runs on the board. Babar Azam finally found some form as he scored 74 runs but his strike-rate continued to be the talking point. He got out at the wrong time though as the team was expecting him to score big in this game after getting his eyes in. Perhaps, credit to Afghanistan who spun a web around them with four specialist spinners on the slow surface in Chennai.
Apart from Babar and Abdullah Shafique who also scored a half-century, none of the Pakistan batters looked comfortable against spin. It was only due to Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed that they helped Pakistan reach 282 runs scoring 91 runs in the last 10 overs. However, given Pakistan's fielding effort, it seems that the Men in Green should've scored more after winning the toss.
