Asif Ali, a Pakistani batter, was dropped by India’s young left-arm pacer Arshdeep Singh, who later applied the finishing touches to Pakistan’s successful chase of 182 in a gripping Super Four encounter here. The cricketing community has reacted passionately in Arshdeep Singh’s defence.

Ali slog-swept off leg-spinner Ravi Bishnoi on the third ball of the 18th over, when Pakistan required 32 runs from 15 balls. However, he received a heavy top edge that flew in the direction of the third man. As the ball passed between his hands, Arshdeep, who was stationed there, put down the sitter. Ali would have been searching for a duck if Arshdeep had taken the catch.

Finally, in the last over, Arshdeep bowled a pinpoint yorker to bowl Ali leg before wicket. However, at that point, he had scored 16 runs off of eight balls. But when two runs were needed off the final two balls, Pakistan prevailed because to Iftikhar Ahmed’s ground-pivoting drive.

Arshdeep had already thrown away the bails at the non-end striker’s before the run was finished out of dissatisfaction. After the game, in which Arshdeep had statistics of 1/27 in 3.5 overs, his teammates came over to give him a pat on the back and offer words of comfort. Because he missed Ali’s catch, he was severely ridiculed on social media, which prompted many cricket fans to tweet their support for him.

“Stop criticising young @arshdeepsinghh No one drop the catch purposely..we are proud of our boys .. Pakistan played better.. shame on such people who r putting our own guys down by saying cheap things on this platform bout arsh and team.. Arsh is GOLD,” tweeted former India off-spinner Harbhajan Singh.

Abhinav Mukund, the opener, described his feelings after dropping Steve Smith on 37 at short leg during the 2017 Pune Test on Twitter. Smith went on to score a century that gave Australia the victory. He pleaded with the crowd not to be harsh on Arshdeep for missing the catch.

“After dropping steve smith in the pune test, i was absolutely inconsolable for hours alone in my room. I really hope @arshdeepsinghh doesnt feel that way. He will be more gutted than anyone else in our country tonight. Lets cut him some slack!”

Former India left-arm pacer Irfan Pathan tweeted, “Arshdeep is a strong character. Stay that way boy.”

“My request to all Indian team fans. In sports we make mistakes as we r human. Please don’t humiliate anyone on these mistakes @arshdeepsinghh,” tweeted former Pakistan all-rounder Mohammad Hafeez.

Arshdeep’s IPL side, Punjab Kings, also tweeted in support of him. “We are with you Arsh.”

India’s next Super Four match in Asia Cup 2022 will be against Sri Lanka at Dubai on Tuesday.

(Inputs from IANS)