Shahid Afridi has recently recovered from a bout of Coronavirus, but that hasn’t stopped him from making bold claims when it comes to India-Pakistan rivalry. He recently stated that Indian cricketers used to beg forgiveness from them after Pakistan used to beat them badly and so many times.
Afridi, who has scored 1524 runs in 67 ODIs and 709 runs from eights Tests against India, said he always got a kick out of playing against the Indian cricket team and that some of his career’s most enjoyable cricket has come while performing against India and Australia.
“I have always enjoyed India. Unhe to theek-thaak mara hai humne. Itna mara hai unhe ki match ke baad maafiyan mangi hai unhone. (We’ve thrashed them a lot. I believe we’ve beaten them so much that they used to ask us for forgiveness after the match). I have enjoyed a lot playing against India and Australia, you have more pressure. They are good teams, big teams. Going and performing in their conditions is the big thing,” Afridi said on the Cric Cast show on YouTube.
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Pakistan lead India 73-55 in ODIs, but it’s majorly based on their success in the 1980s.
Between 2010 and 2020 though, India has zoomed ahead with a 10-4 lead with no draws or tie. This includes three World Cup wins – in 2011, 2015, and 2019 (taking their overall World Cup tally to 7-0) and a 6-1 scoreline in T20Is.
Afridi, who has scored three Test and two ODI centuries against India, rated his innings of 141 in the 1999 Chennai Test as his favorite knock. It came in the second innings of the Test, as the right-hander slammed 21 boundaries and three sixes and along with Inzamam, helped Pakistan recover from 42/2.
“My most memorable inning was the 141 against India, that too in India. I was not going on that trip; they were not taking me. Wasim bhai and the chief selector that time supported me a lot. It was a very difficult tour and that inning was very important,” Afridi added.
Here is the video:
