After India and Australia, Pakistan’s third consecutive failure today against Afghanistan has wrung the team’s hopes of reaching the semi-finals easily dry. Today’s date has walked down in Afghanistan’s history as the day they beat Pakistan in ODI for the first time ever.
Defeating Pakistan by 8 wickets has become the second major upset by Afghanistan after this young team beat England earlier. Post this win, Afghanistan has jumped from the bottom of the points table to the sixth position.
Both teams made one change in their Playing XI as Pakistan’s Shadab Khan replaced Mohammad Nawaz, while Afghanistan saw Noor Ahmad come in for Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Electing to bat first, Pakistan set a target of 283 runs for Afghanistan at the loss of 7 wickets. Skipper Babar Azam scored the highest from Pakistan, 74 runs off 92 balls, while opener Abdullah Shafique contributed 58. Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed both contributed 40 runs each down the batting order, helping the team exceed a total of 280 runs. Noor Ahmad stood out as the most effective bowler for Afghanistan, securing three wickets for 49 runs, while Naveen-ul-Haq added two wickets to his name, conceding 52 runs.
In their response, Afghanistan’s openers gave their team a brilliant start. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran became national superstars after they added 130 runs for the first wicket. Later, Rahmanullah Gurbaz was taken out by Shaheen Shah Afridi at 65 runs. Post his departure, Zadran and Rahmat Shah added 60 runs for the second wicket. Ibrahim Zadran later departed at 87 runs.
At no point during the game, the Afghani team looked in a hurry or stressed. The finishing pair of Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi took their time to carry the game to the end and finished in style, leaving the Pakistani players in need of a miracle. While Shah remained unbeaten at 77, Shahidi scored 48 runs.
Post the defeat, Pakistani skipper Azam acknowledged that the team’s bowling was not up to the mark and that there were issues with the way the players fielded.