India versus Pakistan or India versus ‘chacha’? Iftikhar Ahmed as batsman wins over netizens

Another day, another Pakistan versus India match and another unpredictable tug of war of a performance by the Green Shirts, having us feel all kinds of things. Speaking of unpredictable, the batsman who shone the brightest among the Pakistani team was not Babar Azam or Muhammad Rizwan, rather, Iftikhar Ahmed. Pakistani Twitter can’t help but apologise for all the times they doubted “chacha”, hailing him as hero.

India won the toss in the T20 World Cup match against Pakistan on Sunday and chose to bowl. Chasing a 160-run target set by the Green Shirts was not as easy as expected — the Pakistani team gave them a hard time, keeping the balls from crossing the boundaries.

While the Green Shirts’ fielding soothed our hearts, their batting was had us heads in hands, afraid to look at the screen. The players made us anxious, save for some — Melbourne Cricket Ground is witness to the brilliance of chacha, who hit sixes at the most crucial time, invoking hope in the hearts of disheartened fans.

Make room chacha, your family is growing.

Who’s laughing now?

Gamechanger, indeed!

Forget man on the match, chacha is the crush of the match.

Aside from Ahmed’s batting, there were some sharp wickets that had us swooning, we must say. Naseem Shah’s fiery wicket, the RizBar partnership getting players out without even realising it themselves and Haris Rauf’s catches through ninja leaps are visions we will carry with us long after the match ended.

If you heard the crowd chanting every time Naseem and Shaheen took to the field, the Shah supremacy will become self-explanatory.

The start of the second innings had Pakistani fans floating on a cloud.

It’s during Kohli’s batting that things got a bit tense and we weren’t so sure anymore.

The ending had us hanging onto each ball, not sure where this was going to go. One thing is for sure, it was super exhilarating.

All that’s left to say is, tum jeeto ya haro, humen tumse pyar hai.