Asia Cup 2022: Pakistans Fakhar Zaman earns praise for walking off before umpires call

Pakistan’s
Fakhar Zaman earned praise from across the cricketing world for walking out
after edging the ball without waiting for the umpire’s decision in the high-octane
India versus Pakistan Asia Cup match Sunday. Zaman, 32, walked away at a
difficult time for his team after skipper Babar Azam was out for 10 runs in
nine balls. Zaman was looking in good touch before he edged a short delivery to
Dinesh Karthik in the final over of the powerplay.

It was only
a faint edge and neither bowler Avesh Khan nor wicketkeeper Dinesh Karthik
appealed. Fakhar started walking out of the ground and the umpire raised his
finger. Pakistan was reduced to 42 for 2 wickets, Zaman out after scoring 10
runs off 6 deliveries.

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Social
media praise for Zaman came first from the International Cricket Council (ICC).
The top cricketing body wrote on Twitter: “A laudable gesture from the Pakistan
batter.”

Saj Sadiq,
a Twitter user, wrote: “Many batters would have just stood there and pretended
he didn’t edge it and hope that the opposition don’t appeal – but that was fantastic
sportsmanship from Fakhar Zaman.”

“Fakhar
Zaman has set a high level standards of sportsman spirit by walking over to pavilion
despite no appeal from India. You can hardly expect such sort of sportsman
spirit in India and Pakistan encounter [sic],” wrote Arfa Feroz Zake.

Pakistan
finished their innings with 147 runs on board. India need 148 runs to win the
match. For India, pacers shone. Bhuvneshwar Kumar took 4 for 26, registering
the best performance of an Indian bowler against Pakistan. Hardik Pandya, an
all-rounder, took three wickets.

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For
Pakistan, the pick of the batsmen was Mohammed Rizwan who scored 43 of 42
balls. Iftikhar Ahmed scored an impressive 28 of 22 balls with two fours and a
six to keep Pakistan in the running.