Ashraf Ali Siddiqui looks Afghanistan upset Pakistan
Afghanistan upset Pakistan and overcame late nerves in the closing overs to beat by seven wickets in the second Twenty20 international and took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-game series. The Afghan victory is quite an upset as their side is considered a novice in the league with Pakistani side. Though cricket is widely acknowledged to a game of chance but experienced teams overcome this unpredictability and Pakistani team has enough experience to boast of.
Pakistan should have been conscious that Afghanistan had previously won a T20I series each against the West Indies and Bangladesh and five in five against Zimbabwe and it is no more a walk-over. The result was that it was the first bilateral T20I series against any of the top six teams India, England, Pakistan, South Africa, New Zealand and Australia that Pakistan lost throwing it away towards Afghanistan.
Needing 30 off the last three overs, and 22 from the last two, Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi hit a six each off pace bowler Naseem Shah in the penultimate over to reduce the target to five runs. Zadran then hit the winning boundary off Zaman Khan’s last over to chase down the 131-run target with one ball to spare. Pakistan’s 130-6 in 20 overs was built around a sedate 57-ball 64 not out by all-rounder Imad Wasim — his maiden T20I half century. Rahmanullah Gurbaz (44 off 49 balls) and Ibrahim Zadran (38 off 40 balls) set the platform during their 56-run second wicket stand. However, their slow batting left Afghanistan needing to score 46 off the last 30 balls. Najibullah (23) and Nabi (14) remained unbeaten to seal the victory.
Earlier, Pakistan’s recovery was led by Imad who hit two sixes and three boundaries to rescue Pakistan from 63-5 after winning the toss and batting. Imad and Shadab (32) added 67 for the sixth wicket. Pakistan had got off to a disastrous start with left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi claiming Saim Ayub and Abdullah Shafique, both for zero, in the first over of the innings. Farooqi finished with 2-19 in his four overs. Shafique has now been dismissed for nought on four successive occasions in five T20Is since making his debut in November 2020. TW
