Afghanistan's historic victory by surprising Pakistan


Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmat Shah after the win: Reuters

Pakistan: 282/7 in 50 overs


Afghanistan: 286/2 in 49 overs

Result: Afghanistan win by 8 wickets

Afghanistan have never beaten Pakistan seven times before in ODIs. A few days ago, Afghanistan gave a big surprise by defeating England, but Pakistan was the clear favorite in this match. At the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai, the bulk of the crowd support was also for Babar Azam. But the Afghans will write another fairy tale in their cricket, another chapter will be added to their history! It will create a new record.

Noor Ahmed, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah wrote that history of Afghanistan in Chennai. They created another incident in the World Cup by defeating Pakistan by 8 wickets. Afghanistan passed the target of 283 runs with 6 balls to spare. This is the highest run chase win record for Afghanistan in their history. On the other hand, Pakistan has gone to the edge of the ditch after losing for the third time in a row, and the dreams of the semi-finals have also suffered a big blow. Afghanistan gave Pakistan no chance in the run chase, giving them a first-ever World Cup win.

In the middle of the match, there was a big pressure in front of Afghanistan to chase the record run. But 56 for no wickets in the first 10 overs, 128 for no wickets in the first 20 overs—the opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran made Afghanistan's run chase easy. Bowling, fielding, body language - Pakistan didn't seem very excited at that time. Keeping up the run rate, the Afghans batted risk-free, which only frustrated the Pakistanis.

The opening pair of Gurbaz and Ibrahim scored 130 runs: AFP

Gurbaz gets his half century in 38 balls, Ibrahim takes 54 balls. In the return spell in the 22nd over, Shaheen Shah stopped Afridi Gurbaz, but Pakistan did not see the next wicket soon. Ibrahim, who was 13 runs away from the century, caught Hasan Ali behind the wicket before his partnership with Rahmat Shah reached 60 runs.

Rahmat and Hashmatullah Shahidi ensured that Ibrahim's wicket would not be the first step in Pakistan's turnaround. After Ibrahim's return, the run rate slowed down, but Pakistan took advantage of that opportunity and did not see a wicket. Rehmat and Hashmat have made great progress with Afghanistan, nothing has happened to Pakistan. Rahmat (77*) after Gurbaz, Ibrahim—Afghanistan's first three batsmen to cross 50. This is the first time that runs have been chased in the World Cup. Captain Hashmat was unbeaten with 48 off 45 balls, the match-winning run coming from his bat.
Earlier, after winning the toss and batting after 1362 balls, Abdullah Shafiq ended Pakistan's drought of sixes in the first power play, but their batting policy did not work well by holding the wicket. The first 5-wicket pair both had good chances but none of them came up that big. Pakistan's 56, 54, 10, 43 and 43 runs could not knock Afghanistan completely in the first 40 overs.

Noor took 3 important wickets: Reuters

After opening batsman Shafiq, captain Babar Azam also got a half-century, but none could reach a century. Both have stopped because of 18-year-old wrist spinner Noor Ahmed, who is playing his first match in the World Cup. Shafiq, who scored 35 off the first 31 balls, lost the ball against the Afghan spinners, scoring 23 off 44 balls before being dismissed. Noor also took the wicket of Mohammad Rizwan along with Shafiq-Babar.

Afghanistan played four spinners including Mohammad Nabi in Chennai. They also got the benefit of that. When Mujeeb ur Rehman (55 in 8 overs) was dropped, the remaining 3 spinners took 5 wickets with 121 runs in 30 overs, while two pacers Naveen Ul Haq and Azmatullah Omarzai gave 102 runs in 12 overs. Iftikhar Ahmed and Shadab Khan hit 73 runs off 45 balls. Iftikhar found his ideal stage, playing a blistering innings of 40 off 27 balls standing there. Shadab Khan who scored 40 runs from 38 balls also gave him great company.
But on such a day, Afghanistan will not stop anything!


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