Dubai : Pakistan clinch a low scoring thriller victory against Afghanistan at Sharjah, defeating them by 1 wicket in the super 4 clash.
Chasing a small total of 130 runs in 20 overs, Pakistan lost their skipper Babar Azam along with Fakhar Zaman & in form Mohammad Rizwan cheaply. Their innings on the slow Pitch against mighty bowling line up of Afghanistan was struggling, yet Iftikhar Ahmed & vice captain Shadab Khan managed to score a pressure releasing partnership to give rays of hopes to the dug out but soon it began to shatter as they quickly began to collapse, losing 3 wickets in quick succession in 16-17th over, finisher Asif Ali struck couple of sixes to bring back pressure on Afghanistan, but he too got dismissed. With 9 wickets down , 11 required off the last over, number 10 & 11 at the crease, all odds seemed to be against Pakistan. In form Fazalhaq Farooqi came to bowl the final over but Naseem Shah with 2 big sixes finished the match in the 1st 2 balls, taking Pakistan into the finals and knocking out India & Afghanistan.
Earlier, Batting 1st Afghanistan got off to a fluent start with Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran scoring aggressive runs, but after the dismissal of the openers, though Zadran held from 1 end, Afghanistan innings began to slow down and lost wickets at regular intervals, at the end of the 20 overs they only managed to score 129 on a slow track. Shadab Khan was the Man of the Match, with an economical spell & important 36 runs. Pakistan will face Sri Lanka in the finals on Sunday at Dubai International Cricket Stadium, 1st time after 2014 Asia Cup.
BRIEF SCORE CARD
1ST INNINGS :
AFGHANISTAN : 129-6(20)
Ibrahim Zadran : 35(27)
PAKISTAN
Haris Rauf : 2/26
2ND INNINGS :
PAKISTAN : 131-9(19.1)
Shadab Khan : 36(26)
Iftikhar Ahmed : 30(33)
AFGHANISTAN
Fareed Ahmad Malik : 3/31
Fazalhaq Farooqi : 3/31
