Afridi vs Nehra - match 4 - tour '05

[Preamble: Nehra had got Afridi twice in the last three matches..... pretty cheaply]

Just (re)watching the 4th game of the India Pakistan '05 series... the first over by Nehra was very interesting... Afridi crossed over to face the 3rd ball of Nehra's first over (Afridi's first strike of the match).... and u could hear Salman Butt saying "shabash Afridi Allah ka naam le ke boy!" :D......... the bowler comes in... Afridi *charges* down the wicket and tries to heave him out of the stadium!! ... only for the ball to miss his bat and the leg stump by a whisker... oooohs and aaahs all round the park....

Next ball.. short.. on off stump.. Afridi tries to pull.. only to miss-time it to midwicket.... Nehra on his follow-through tries to say a few words to Afridi (of course on a high)... but Afridi so disdainfully shruggs him off... like "chal chal.... kaam ker apna... (yeah yeah.. lets get on with it)"... the next ball is a wide and the next two are similarly miss-timed by Afridi.. only to get scornful smiles out of Nehra...

The next over.. the first ball he bowls to Afridi.. very similar to the ones he bowled last over.. only closer to the "good" length.... Afridi winds up... heaves.... and SIX!!.. of course some1 is not happy :P

Next ball.. good length outside off stump.. Afridi slashes.... edged! but the ball flies in between the keeper and Dravid at first slip! And the words that came out of the bowlers mouth were not something i would like to repeat here (this being a U-rated medium)....

Afridi lifted him for a couple more in the following over but the Nehra hit him hard on the grill of the helmet and Afridi was sooo unmoved! I am sure Nehra was expecting him to at least take off the helmet for inspection... but as they say.. "dont whince.... dont show u r hurt"...

Entertaining stuff.... as Ravi Shastri would say

Salman Butt's comments were interesting... "shabash... out nahin hona... Kheltay raho Allah ka naam le ke".... and when Afridi was beaten fair and square outside the off-stump we got "shabaash buhut aalaa.... kharey raho Allah ka naam le ke..." :D....... and Afridi replying occasionally "tayyar rehna" only to deposit the ball over the fence without requiring any "tayyari" from Butt....

[Edit: well it _looked_ much more interesting than reading it ;) ]