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What a massive victory Afghanistan have made in the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup! After making the first upset of the World Cup by defeating England, Afghanistan have done it again. Today, they beat Pakistan for the very first time in their history and created another upset.
The Afghans defeated Pakistan by 8 wickets to seal their only second win in the history of the World Cup. As a result, Afghanistan moved up to the 6th place after this fairytale win. Meanwhile, Pakistan slipped down to the 5th position after losing three games in a row.
Match Report
Babar Azam, the captain of Pakistan, won the toss and opted to bat first. Abdullah Shafique and Imamul Haque stepped in to start the innings for Pakistan. Since the start, both openers were defensive and didn’t take any risky shots. They successfully played the powerplay without losing any wickets.
But the breakthrough came in the very first ball after the powerplay. Opener Imam-ul Haque lost his wicket to Hazratullah Omarzai in the 10.1 over. However, Abdullah Shafique strongly handled the disaster with the skipper, Babar Azam. Together they added 54 runs on the scoreboard.
However, Afghan bowler Noor Ahmed put Pakistan under tremendous pressure as he got two wickets in a short time. He picked up Abdullah Shafique and Mohammad Rizwan in his successive two overs.
On the flip, Babar Azam has been struggling with the bat throughout the tournament. But the skipper had a good knock today against Afghanistan. He contributed 74 off 92 before losing the wicket, which is his best figure in this tournament.
However, Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed scored 40 runs each to help Pakistan reach a challenging score of 282 runs against Afghanistan.
Afghanistan had a flying start to chase this target. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran were in their best form against the Pakistani bowlers. They made a fantastic partnership of 130 runs in the opening wicket. Furthermore, they both also got half-century for each.
Although Rahmanullah Gurbaz lost his wicket after scoring 65 runs, Ibrahim Zadran made another partnership with Rahmat Shah. Their second partnership added 60 runs on the scoreboard.
Ibrahim Zadran was so close to getting his maiden century in the World Cup but lost his wicket to Hasan Ali in the 33.3 over. However, he added the highest 87 runs before leaving the crease.
After that, Rahmat Shah successfully chased down the target with the skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi. Their partnership of 114 runs sealed a historical win for Afghanistan. Rahmat Shah remained not out in 77 runs, while captain Hashmatullah Shahidi was unbeaten in 48 runs to secure a fairytale victory against Pakistan.
We Want to Make This Tournament Historic – Shahidi
Hashmatullah Shahidi, the captain of Afghanistan, shared his thoughts on this historical victory. He said, “This win tastes nice. The way we chased was very professional. Looking forward for the other games. The way we chased today, we’ll do it again. The quality cricket that we have been playing for the last couple of years, the belief was there when we were playing the Asia Cup also. At the start of the tournament, I said that we want to make this tournament historic for our country’s people. “
