'Absolutely gutted,' expresses Iftikhar Ahmed

"Absolutely gutted," he wrote on his official X account.

"Unfortunately, we couldn’t finish on the right side of the match today, but proud of our efforts throughout this do or die match. Congratulations @OfficialSLC! A good learning curve heading into the most important World Cup." 

The Men-in-Green took on the Lankan Lions in a virtual semi-final of the Asia Cup in Colombo on Thursday and lost by two wickets, where the home team required two runs off the last delivery.

Iftikhar played his heart out in the contest, scoring game-changing 47 runs off 40 deliveries and had a crucial 108-run partnership with Mohammad Rizwan, who scored unbeaten 86 runs off 73.

Then in the ball in hand, Iftikhar took three wickets for 50 runs in 8 overs.