Spirited Afghanistan prompted but another upset in the continued World Cup as they defeated Pakistan by eight wickets on the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on Monday, October 23. The day will go down in Afghanistan’s cricketing historical past as a memorable one as additionally it is the primary time Afghanistan have managed to get the higher of Pakistan in a 50-over contest.
The basis of victory was laid down by the Afghan spinners, particularly the younger left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad who recorded match-winning figures of three/49 on his World Cup debut. Chasing 283 to script historical past, the Afghan opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran acquired the crew off to a praiseworthy begin and put collectively 130 runs in 21.1 overs.
Rahmanullah fell after scoring his fifty (65 off 53 balls) to Shaheen Afridi however the strike price at which he aggregated the runs was sufficient to offer Afghanistan the sting early in the chase. His opening accomplice although, carried on and batted with aplomb to attain 87 off 113 deliveries, together with ten fours.
Player of the Match Ibrahim was concerned in but another essential stand, this time with Rahmat Shah and stitched 60 runs to stabilise the tempo of the sport. After the dismissal of Ibrahim, all of it fell on the shoulders of Rahmat and Afghanistan skipper Hasmatullah Shahidi and the duo put collectively a gallant third-wicket stand to steer Afghanistan to victory.
Earlier in the day, Pakistan skipper Babar Azam gained the toss and elected to bat first on a sporting wicket in Chennai to publish an enormous complete on the board. The two Pakistan openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq acquired the crew off to a circumspect starting as they added 56 runs for the primary wicket.
However, the sport turned on its head utterly after the completion of ten overs as each openers and star wicketkeeper-batter Mohammad Rizwan fell inside the following 15 overs. The drastic change in the move of play occurred after the introduction of teenage spin sensation Noor Ahmad.
Noor, taking part in in his debut World Cup recreation dismissed Shafique after the latter scored but another fifty in the continued version. Shafique fell in the twenty third over and he was adopted by Rizwan who additionally succumbed to Noor’s spin.
Babar performed watchfully at one finish and scored a gritty half-century. He acquired out in the forty second over at a person rating of 74 and Pakistan have been underneath the specter of getting restricted to a complete under 250. However, quick-fire cameos from Iftikhar Ahmed (40 off 27 balls) and Shadab Khan (40 off 38 balls) pulled issues again for the 1992 world champions and helped them publish 282 for the lack of seven wickets in 50 overs.
