Afghanistan stun Pakistan in a thriller

Afghanistan dished out an outstanding performances to beat Pakistan by eight wickets with one over to spare in their World Cup cricket fixture played at MA Chidamparam Cricket Stadium in Chennai yesterday.

This is the first time Afghan team defeated Pakistan in ODIs as well as this is the first time Afghanistan record two wins at World Cup (earlier they beat England) and this win brought them to climb to sixth place at the points table with four points.

Afghanistan chasing a target of 283 runs made a superb effort to reach this challenging target with eight wickets in hand while their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz 65 in 53 balls with nine fours and a six well supported by Ibrahim Zadran hit 87 in 113 balls with 10 fours paved a good platform to reach their target.

The opening pair added 130 runs stand while Rahmat Shah hit 77 in 84 balls with five fours and two sixes and skipper Hazmatullah Shahidi scored 48 in 45 balls with four fours including winning boundary assured their win with one over to spare. Ibrahim Zadran was named Man of the Match.

Pakistan elected to bat first and their openers Abdullah Shafique (58) and Imam Ul Haq (17) added 56 runs in 10.1.

Skipper Azam took responsibility to build up their innings while two bowling all rounders Sadab Khan and Ifthikar Ahamed hit 40 runs each to give good support and they scored 282 for 7 wickets in their 50 overs with a run rate of 5.64.

Afghanistan 18-year-old wrist spinner Noor Ahmed who played his first World Cup game took 3 for 39 in his 10 over spell while paceman Naveen Ul Haq captured 2 for 52 in his seven overs spell. Today (24) Bangladesh will meet South Africa at Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai.

Chief scores

Pakistan 282 for 7 wickets in 50 overs (Abdullah Shafique 58, Imam Ul Haq 17, Babar Azam 74, Saud Shakeel 25, Sadab Khan 40, Ifthikar Ahamed 40, Naveen Ul Haq 2/52, Noor Ahmed 3/39)

Afghanistan 286 for 2 wickets in 49 overs (Rahmanullah Gurbaz 65, Ibrahim Zadran 87, Rahmat Shah 77*, Hazmatullah Shahidi 58*, Shaheen Afridi 1/58, Hasan Ali 1/44).

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