The 21-year-old, playing just his second T20I, was named a late replacement for Fakhar Zaman, who suffered an injury to his right knee during the Netherlands game, and was ruled out of the tournament. Batting at No.3, Haris helped Pakistan put on their highest powerplay score in this tournament [42], scoring at a rapid rate after Mohammad Rizwan’s early departure.
It was an ominous start: Haris was beaten by Wayne Parnell off his second ball, getting hit on the helmet and undergoing the mandatory concussion test. In the next over by Rabada, Haris got back strike off the fourth ball and unleashed a fine wristy whip over the deep mid-wicket fence for an 86-metre hit.
Next ball, Rabada dropped his length short, but Haris was equal to the task, swivelling in his crease and pulling it past the deep fine-leg fielder for a 72-metre hit.
Rabada tried one more short ball off the next one, but Haris had little difficulty guiding it to the left of the same fielder to end the 17-run over.
Two overs later, he struck another eye-catching stroke, using Anrich Nortje’s pace and scooping the ball over wicketkeeper Quinton de Kock’s head for his third six of the innings. Nortje was quick to respond, retaining his stump-to-stump line and beating Haris for pace, snaring him lbw.
At the end of 10 overs, Pakistan were 68-4, having also lost the wickets of Babar Azam and Shan Masood after Haris.