In a massive error, Pakistan's Babar Azam dropped a regulation catch of New Zealand captain Kane Williamson to deprive debutant Abbas Afridi of his maiden international wicket in the ongoing first T20I.
The incident took place in the fifth over of the match. Afridi deceived Williamson with a slow full ball on the leg stump. The right-handed batter was early on the hoick down the ground and Babar settled under the sky-high ball at long-on. However, while trying to catch it overhead, the ball popped out of his fingers and fell near the boundary.
Watch the dropped catch here:
Babar was visibly disappointed with himself and didn't look at his 100 percent after the drop until the 15th over when he took a nice running catch of Glenn Phillips.
After Babar Azam, Iftikhar Ahmed also dropped Williamson
Babar's wasn't the only one to hand Williamson a life. Five overs after his drop at long-on, Williamson lobbed a cut shot off the toe end of his bat high to the right of Iftikhar Ahmed at third man.
The Pakistani all-rounder got his fingers to it by stretching his right hand. He didn't catch it cleanly the first time, juggled it twice, and ultimately dropped it.
Here's a video of it:
The two drops just let Williamson lose. On 9 (12) at the time of the first missed opportunity, he reached his half-century off 40 balls in the 12th over. He hit nine fours overall and eventually got out for 57 (42) on the third ball of the 12th over by mistiming another slower one from Abbas to long-on where Fakhar Zaman didn't make a mistake this time.
Till the time he got out, Williamson allowed Daryl Mitchell to take on the bowlers from the other end and get set. Mitchell's knock ended in the 17th over after a breezy 27-ball 61.
Catch the live-action here.
