Sharjah: Pakistan survived a scare and held their nerves to beat Afghanistan by one wicket in a thrilling Super Four match to reach the final of the Asia Cup 2022 and knock India out of the tournament at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
After this win, Pakistan will now face Sri Lanka in the final of the Asia Cup. On the other hand, it was curtains for Afghanistan and India – as both teams lost their two consecutive Super Four matches.
After winning toss and opting to bowl first, the likes of Haris Rauf (2/26) while Naseem Shah (1/19), Mohammad Nawaz (1/23), Shadab Khan (1/27), Mohammad Hasnain (1/34) produced a terrific bowling performance and helped Pakistan restrict Afghanistan to 129-6 in 20 overs.
Ibrahim Zadran (35 off 37) was the top-scorer for Afghanistan while Hazratullah Zazai (21 off 17), Rashid Khan (18 off 15), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (17 off 11) were the other main contributors with the bat.
Chasing a small total, Pakistan didn’t have a great start as they lost the wicket of skipper Babar Azam (0) in the second ball of the innings. Fazalhaq Farooqi got the ball swinging back into Babar, who got hurried by the pace and swing and was trapped in front of the wicket.
Fakhar Zaman (5), who came to bat next, also didn’t look comfortable against Mujeeb Ur Rahman and wanted to get off the strike but a solid direct hit by Najibullah sent him back to the pavilion, leaving Pakistan to 18-2 after 3.1 overs. Mohammad Rizwan, who has been in scillitaning form, batted cautiously and along with Iftikhar Ahmed took Pakistan 35/2 at the end of powerplay.
Afghanistan had hopes from their premier spinner Rashid Khan and he didn’t disappoint. Bowling his second over, Rashid trapped Rizwan (20) in front of wickets by a quicker googly to give some hope to his team.
In place of Nawaz who played a match-winning knock against India, Pakistan decided to promote leg-spinner Shadab Khan into the batting order. He along with Iftikhar Ahmed had a job to do as Pakistan were 52/3 at the halfway mark.
Both Shadab and Iftikhar rotated strikes and also hit few boundaries in between to keep Pakistan on course in the run-chase. It was Fareed Ahmad who gave the much-needed breakthrough to Afghanistan by getting rid of Iftikhar (30), to bring his side back into the game.
Eventually, Pakistan needed 11 runs in 6 balls to win and Fazalhaq Farooqi, Afghanistan’s most impressive bowler of the night before the start of the last over, crumbled under pressure. Naseem Shah found the sweet spot on his bat twice, hitting back to back sixes off the first two balls and leading Pakistan to a thrilling one wicket win, with four balls to spare.
