Before Afghanistan’s formidable starting batting duo, Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal slammed their own deep batting lineup for an 18-run victory in the first T20 of their tri-series, Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal each hit six half-centuries.
In their first match of the tournament, the spin trio of Pakistan’s captain Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi, and Noor Ahmad, who took six wickets, limiting Pakistan to 151-9.
After Khan won the toss and was chosen to play for the field, Afghanistan posted 169-5, adding to their 113-run performance against the United Arab Emirates from the previous day.
The tri-series saw the successful defense of totals for the fourth straight game. In a battle between Pakistan and Afghanistan, UAE both lost.
In the tournament’s opening game, Haris Rauf had led Pakistan by 39 runs when the number 10 batter top-scored with 34 not out of 16 balls on Tuesday. After Afghanistan’s spinners had almost sealed the game by squeezing Pakistan to 111-9 in 17 overs, Rauf’s blitz arrived too late.
With two wickets in the powerplay, Afghanistan’s fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi won the game. When Saim Ayub feathered a catch off a misplaced pull shot to the wicketkeeper, the left-armer was dismissed without scoring.
Sahibzada Farhan (18) hit two sixes, but Farooqi’s clean bowling from a delivery that slammed back at the right-handed batter and hit the off-stump prevented Farooqi from getting the better of the two.
After the Afghan spinners bowled from both ends, Fakhar Zaman was unable to convert a successful start of 25 runs from 18 balls. At the non-striker’s end, Khan brilliantly ran out of Salman Ali Agha after slicing an easy catch to short third off Nabi.
Before Mohammad Haris’ run of poor form continued and he holed out deep square leg of Nabi as Pakistan stuttered to 82-6 in the 12th over, Hasan Nawaz was unable to clear Ahmad’s first ball, a low leg side full toss.
After a Pakistani batter’s second error saw him take two wickets from Mohammad Nawaz, Khan rattled Shaheen Afridi’s stumps before Rauf denied Khan the hat trick. Noor then clean-bowled Ashraf off his final ball to end a flawless day.
Before Ashraf’s 4-27 prevented Afghanistan from scoring freely in the death overs, Zadran and Atal had already shared a century.
When Ayub bowled three sparse overs in the powerplay and took Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s wicket (8-1) for the first wicket, both batters joined.
With Rauf and the two spinners Nawaz and Sufiyan Muqeem contributing 95 runs from their combined eight wicketless overs, Zadran and Atal led their partnership well after the powerplay.
As Afghanistan couldn’t accelerate in the final five overs, Zadran and Atal were caught in the outfield while deceiving Azmatullah Omarzai and Nabi with their slower deliveries, picking all four of Ashraf’s four wickets in the final three overs.
After three games, Pakistan and Afghanistan each have four points, while the UAE, which faces Pakistan on Thursday, has none.
Source: Aljazeera
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