Rameez Raza and Shaheen Afridi NEW DELHI: After the ball-tampering scandal rocked the Pakistan Super League (PSL), Lahore Qalandars captain Shaheen Afridi expected a burning question to come his way – and he did. After the defeat by Lahore Qalandars, Afridi was asked about the dramatic final that involved alleged ball-tampering by his teammate and star opener Fakhar Zaman.This is how the presentation interview after the match went:Rameez Raja: That last ending was pretty dramatic, especially when the ball was changing due to suspected ball tampering. Your thoughts on the incident?
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Axar Patel questions Impact Player rule: ‘All-rounders lose value’ Afridi: Actually, I don’t know much about it. We need to check what exactly happened on camera. We will discuss it and see who did what because it hurt us a lot. Five penalties made a big difference. But we can’t say much at this point until we know for sure.The incident took place during a PSL match between Lahore Qalandars and Karachi Kings, with Fakhar at the center of the controversy.The problem came to light when Lahore Qalandars fast bowler Haris Rauf was to bowl the final over with Karachi Kings needing 14 runs to win.Rauf was preparing to bowl when captain Shaheen Afridi and Fakhar joined him for a short discussion to outline the plan for the final.What raised eyebrows was that Fakhar looked like he was caught on camera changing the ball.On-field umpire Faisal Afridi then claimed the ball, inspected it and had a long discussion with fellow umpire Sharfuddoulou of Bangladesh.After deliberation, the umpires concluded that the ball had been tampered with and awarded five penalty runs to Karachi, reducing the target to nine runs from the last six balls.The ball was also replaced.Lahore Qalandars eventually lost the match by four wickets.
