Twitter reacts to Shaheen Afridi’s opening spell; Wahab Riaz and Wasim Akram elated!

Not often do we see the white ball moving around like a banana, but Shaheen Afridi produced a magical spell with the new ball. A fact that the Indian top-order is predominantly stacked with right-handed batters played in his favour, as he used the angle from over the wicket quite beautifully. While keeping the incoming delivery as a stock delivery, he bowled the outgoing delivery to great effect too.

Right from the first ball he bowled to KL Rahul, Shaheen Afridi was breathing fire. He managed to dismiss Rohit Sharma with the first of his magical incoming deliveries. The Indian opener did not move his feet quick enough and was trapped plumb in front of the stumps. Another facet in his spell was the late movement, which pretty much negated the footwork factor.

That is the exact thing that doomed Rahul in the left-arm seamer’s second over. The late inward movement was a bit too sharp for any batter’s liking, as it turns out, it was too much for one of the most in-form batters in the world. He castled Rahul’s stumps with an absolute banger, and gave Pakistan a dream start.

Virat Kohli takes on the young seamer

It is the tactical acumen of Virat Kohli that makes him one of the finest batters of all time. He was dancing down the track to Shaheen Afridi to ensure his late swing was negated, and in the few deliveries he faced against the 21-year-old, he looked on top of his game. His point of contact against the spinner was a good meter closer to the bowler than the other players.

He also shuffled across, exposing his stumps to Afridi to smack him for a huge six down the ground, which was one of the moments of the game. Kohli has not been in the best of form lately but produced a moment of magic just when the chips were down.

WATCH: Rohit Sharma and KL Rahul fall prey to the brilliance of Shaheen Afridi

However, this opening spell from Shaheen was as good as it could’ve been.

Here’s how Twitter reacted to this splendid spell of Shaheen Afridi.