NEW DELHI: Legendary speedster Shoaib Akhtar took a dig while praising Pakistan's Mohammad Rizwan for his match-winning knock against Sri Lanka on Tuesday under testing circumstances, saying that the wicketkeeper-batter gets cramps way too often.
Rizwan exhibited exceptional resilience as he battled through pain to deliver the goods for the Babar Azam-led Pakistan side. Rizwan and Abdullah Shafique slammed centuries in Pakistan's record highest successful World Cup run chase over the 1996 world champions in Hyderabad.
"Sometimes it's cramp, sometimes it's acting," Rizwan told the official World Cup broadcaster after the match.
Akhtar also pointed out, while analysing the match on his YouTube channel, that Indian wicketkeeper-batter KL Rahul displayed a similar level of determination and skill in the scorching Chennai heat during India's World Cup opener. Rahul played a masterful innings, scoring an unbeaten 97 runs to lead his team to victory over Australia.
"Rizwan gets cramps very often. I can understand that you are not a very big unit, and it is very demanding on the body to keep wickets for 50 overs and then score a hundred. But KL Rahul also kept wickets in Chennai heat and almost scored a hundred," Akhtar said on his YouTube channel.
Earlier on Wednesday, Rizwan also wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter, "This was for our brothers and sisters in Gaza. Happy to contribute in the win. Credits to the whole team and especially Abdullah Shafique and Hassan Ali for making it easier. Extremely grateful to the people of Hyderabad for the amazing hospitality and support throughout."
At least 1,200 people have now been confirmed dead in Israel in the deadliest attack in the country's 75-year history.
In Gaza, more than 900 people have been killed as Israel has pounded the densely populated territory with retaliatory air strikes and artillery bombardments.
