It was "Boom Boom" time on Wednesday, as Shahid Afridi shook the Eden Gardens with a wonderfully Afridi-like innings, that only the Pakistan captain can play.
Criticised, maligned and his position in the team brought into question, Afridi did not come into this ICC World T20 2016 in great mood. To top it all, the captain landed in trouble back in Pakistan for his comments on the love he gets in India.
With Afridi missing training Tuesday, there were questions over his availability for Pakistan's opening WT20 match, against Bangladesh at the Eden Gardens, but with a fair few swings of that willow of his, Afridi (49, 19b, 4x4, 4x6) silenced all doubters.
"It's a great sign for the team that he is in form and he is hitting the ball well," Mohammad Hafeez, who scored a wonderful half-century of his own, told Star Sports after the match when asked about Afridi's innings.
With Pakistan in a strong position, courtesy flying knocks from Sharjeel Khan, Ahmed Shehzad and Mohammad Hafeez, the skipper pushed himself up the batting order, coming in at No.4, with Pakistan on 121/2 in 13.5 overs -- Shehzad just losing his wicket after a brilliant half-century.
His first ball was a single to midwicket, before those boundaries started to flow with ridiculous ease. Mashrafe Mortaza has had a good time with the ball of late, but this is a match the Bangladesh skipper will not want to remember. Having conceded 23 runs in his first two overs already, Mortaza would go on to give away 18 runs in Bangladesh's 15th and his third over, with the bulk of those runs coming off the blade of his opposite number.
Afridi, after that single, began with a four to fine-leg, a nice pull shot, before the lap sweep came out to great effect to fetch him another boundary. Mortaza, rattled and a little lost, then bowled a beamer up to the Pakistan captain, who did not blink, helping the ball along brilliantly into the long leg stands for a six off a no-ball.
The fours and sixes just kept coming as Al-Amin Hossain also felt the Afridi wrath, with Taskin Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan craning their necks up as well as the ball soared into the stands with ridiculous ease.
Afridi, finally, fell in the last over of the innings, falling one short of his half-century, but by then the damage had been done and Pakistan swept past 200 in their 20 overs.
