It's easy to say that Shadab Khan of Pakistan had one of his worst performances in a cricket match when Pakistan faced Sri Lanka in the Asia Cup final. In the fifth over of Sri Lanka's innings, the all-rounder slipped while attempting to save an overthrow, and the ball struck his head. He had to leave the field but returned right after to finish his four overs' worth of work with excellent figures of 1 for 28. However, as Sri Lanka's innings progressed, his day got worse and worse.
When the left-hander reached 46 in the 17th over and was bowled by Haris Rauf, he dropped Bhanuka Rajapaksa. Even though it was a difficult opportunity, Shadab, one of the Pakistani team's stronger fielders, settled in under the skier before spilling the ball. In the following over, Shadab and Asif Ali collided as they attempted to grab Rajapaka's catch once more; this time, the ball also sailed for a six.
Sri Lanka climbed from 58 for 5 at one point to a difficult 170 for 6 at the end of their 20 overs thanks to Rajapaksa's unbeaten 71 off 45 balls. After a quiet start from the top order, the Sri Lankan spinners, led by Pramod Madushan (4/34) and Wanindi Hasaranga (3/27), made life extremely difficult for the Pakistan middle and lower order. Sri Lanka won the final by 23 runs to win their sixth Asia Cup championship, while the Babar Azam-led team could only muster 147 in their 20 overs.
Following the match, Shadab Khan took to Twitter and took ‘full responsibility for ‘letting the team down’ as he dropped the crucial catches of Rajapaksa. "Catches win matches. Sorry, I take responsibility for this loss. I let my team down. Positives for the team, @iNaseemShah, @HarisRauf14, @mnawaz94, and the entire bowling attack was great. @iMRizwanPak fought hard. The entire team tried their best. Congratulations to Sri Lanka," he tweeted.
"Want to congratulate Sri Lanka. Outstanding cricket. The way we dominated them early, their partnership after that was outstanding. The pitch was good, like the Dubai wicket, always fun to play here. As a batting unit, we didn't do according to our potential. We didn't finish the way we would've wanted to (with the ball). But there are lots of positives from the tournament. Our fielding wasn't up to the mark today, and our middle-order couldn't finish well today. But there were lot of individual performances: Rizwan, Shadab, Nawaz and Naseem. The way Naseem expressed himself in his first tournament. (Batting fine tuning?) Part of the game. The more you learn from these ups and downs is good. But you need to reduce your mistakes," said Pakistan captain Babar Azam in the post-match presentation.
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