'Nation proud of you': Shahid Afridi celebrates Fakhar Zaman's match-winning knock

Former Pakistan captain Shahid Afridi has expressed immense pride and joy over top-order batter Fakhar Zaman's magnificent century, which won Saturday's match for the national side against New Zealand.

Swashbuckling opener cracked a blistering century to save the Men in Green from the World Cup elimination in a rain-affected and dramatic 21-run victory at the M. Chinnaswamy Stadium.

Heaping praise over Fakhar — who also equalled Afridi's record of the most sixes in a World Cup match for Pakistan — the former cricketer said that he made the nation proud with his performance today.

"Fakhar the nation is proud of you. Always stick to playing on your strengths no matter what, sometimes it will and sometimes it won’t," he wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.

"Become a permanent match winner for Pakistan, we will be unbeatable. Congrats on the win boys, hope for #CWC2023 is not out," the ex-skipper added.

The 33-year-old left-hander smashed 11 sixes and eight boundaries in his unbeaten 81-ball 126 as rain forced a premature end to the match with Pakistan 200-1 after 25.3 overs, chasing a revised DLS target of 342 in 41 overs.

"We planned to see off the first few overs; a few times I got lucky and really enjoyed this innings. We know that every game is do or die for us," Fakhar said after the match.

"In the team meeting, our management decided that we would play aggressively so we are playing with that mind and everybody was trying to score more runs."