Asia Cup: Naseem Shah credits his match-winning heroics to self belief, practice

Pakistan tailender Naseem Shah credited selfbelief and practice sessions in the nets for his final over heroics against Afghanistan in the Asia CupNaseem struck two consecutive sixes in the last over of the game to help his side beat Afghanistan and qualify for the finalThe 22yearold who has already impressed with his fast bowling in the tournament changed roles on Wednesday as his two stunning sixes not only sealed Pakistans one wicket win in a tense Super 4 match but also threw archrivals India out of the tournamentWhen I went in to bat I had the belief to hit the sixes I practice hitting sixes and I knew they would bowl yorkers as they had the field up I just tried and I executed Naseem said after the matchWe need to have the belief we can hit we keep practicing in the nets and I also changed my bat it workedWhen you lose the ninth wicket no one expects you to win but I had belief that I can I practice hitting a lot This will be a memorable game for me Everyones forgotten I am a bowlerPakistan needed 20 off 10 balls with two wickets in hand when Naseem came in The no 10 batter had only faced one ball in T20Is before that Panic set in when Asif Ali was dismissed on the fifth ball of the penultimate overAlso Read India to face Australia New Zealand in warmups ahead of T20 World CupPakistan needed 11 from the final over but Naseem decided to take it upon himself and finish off the matchAsif was batting when I came in and my job was to give him strike but when he got out I thought it was all on mePakistan captain Babar Azam said he was reminded of batting great Javed Miandad hitting that famous last ball six off Chetan Sharma to beat India in Sharjah in 1986 Azam wasnt even born when Miandads heroics helped Pakistan clinch the AustralAsia CupI was in the dressing room during last over But at the back of the mind I thought it is cricket and I have seen Naseem bat like this so I had a little bit of beliefThis reminded me of Javed Miandads six in Sharjah he saidTo be honest it was quite a tense environment in the dressing room We couldnt build partnerships like last few games but the way Naseem finished it you could see the mahaul vibe after thatPakistan play Sri Lanka in the summit clash on SundayThis story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed agencies Midday accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability trustworthiness reliability and data of the text Midday managementmiddaycom reserves the sole right to alter delete or remove without notice the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever