IND vs PAK final: Wasim Akram slams Suryakumar Yadav for obstruction appeal against Salman Agha; ‘Made no sense to…’

The India and Pakistan final at the Dubai International Stadium is underway, where the Men in Blue won the toss and chose to bowl first. As with any IND-PAK contest, tempers are flared from both sides, and even more so considering that this is an Asia Cup final.

​Another heated moment in the Asia Cup happened when Indian captain Suryakumar Yadav appealed in the 16th over of the match against his Pakistani counterpart, Salman Ali Agha, for obstruction of the field.

​The incident occurred on the first ball of the over when Axar Patel bowled a full delivery outside the off stump to the Pakistani skipper, who pushed it to the left of the extra cover fielder. Agha ran for a single, but Surya collected the ball and threw it back; it hit the Pakistan captain, who was trying to get back to the striker's end.

​Surya then appealed for obstruction of the field, and the matter was referred to the third umpire, Ruchira Palliyaguruge. The official took his time with the replays and decided in favour of Agha since it was not an intentional obstruction at the hands of the batter.

​Wasim Akram questions Surya's decision:

​The appeal by Surya didn't sit well with a portion of the crowd, who booed the Indian captain. Meanwhile, former Pakistani cricketer Wasim Akram wasn't happy with the appeal by Surya as well and said on air, “Where is sportsman spirit? Made no sense to appeal.”

​Notably, this is not the first time that the spirit of the game debate has been invoked during the India vs Pakistan encounter this Asia Cup. The issue was earlier brought up by the Pakistani side and its former players when the Indian team refused to engage in customary post-match handshakes with their Pakistani counterparts after both group stage and Super 4 clashes.

​Pakistan Cricket Board (PCB) had also blamed match referee Andy Pycroft for mishandling the handshake controversy and demanded his removal from the tournament. While Pakistan threatened to boycott the tournament if Pycroft wasn't removed, PCB later relented after ICC stood by its official.

​Similarly, tensions had flared up during the Super 4 clash when Haris Rauf and Sahibzada Farhan engaged in provocative gestures towards Indian fans and players, which later led to ICC fining the Pak pacer 30% of his match fee.

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