Babar Azam, Pakistan’s captain, praised Naseem Shah after his team defeated Afghanistan by one wicket in the Super Four match, saying that Shah’s final over sixes reminded him of Pakistan’s legendary former cricketer Javed Miandad’s six in Sharjah.
Team India is no longer in the running for the championship after Pakistan defeated Afghanistan by one wicket in a thrilling Super Four match on Wednesday. Naseem Shah’s two back-to-back sixes in the first two balls of the final over overcame some outstanding bowling by Afghanistan earlier in the innings.
Despite scoring just 129/6 on the board, Afghanistan would be quite satisfied with the outstanding bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi (3/31) and Fareed Ahmad Malik (3/31). They came close to giving their team a victory, but Naseem’s two sixes in the last over gave Pakistan the victory.
Pakistan won the Austral-Asia Cup after Javed Miandad hit a final-ball six off Chetan Sharma in Sharjah.
“I had a small amount of confidence because I had the impression that this was T20 cricket and that I had seen Naseem bat similarly. I was reminded of the six in Sharjah by Javed Miandad “At the post-game presentation, Babar stated.
“We didn’t carry out our batting strategy very well, but Naseem was excellent. The dressing room was stressful, to be perfectly honest. The team was entering and exiting the locker room. The way Naseem Shah ended it was excellent “he added.
They want to maintain this momentum in the upcoming games, according to Babar, and avoid making the same mistakes twice.
“We want to maintain this momentum and learn from our failures. Every day is unique, thus we’d want to take things day by day “explained Pakistan’s captain.
Pakistan secured a position in the final with Sri Lanka with its victory against Afghanistan in the Super Four stage, eliminating India from contention.
Pakistan, who was attempting to reach 130, got off to a bad start when its captain, Babar Azam, was lost for a golden duck. Azam’s terrible performance in the competition persisted, and he made history by being the first captain in Asia Cup history to have a registered golden duck.
Pakistan was reduced to 18/2 when left-hander Fakhar Zaman was run out by Najibullah Zadran for 5.
Following this, Pakistan’s innings were rebuilt by Mohammed Rizwan and Iftikhar Ahmed, who also kept the scoreboard moving with their strong runs between the wickets. Pakistan had Iftikhar Ahmed (13) and Mohammad Rizwan (15) at 35/2 after six overs.
By trapping Rizwan lbw for 20, Rashid Khan earned Afghanistan their third wicket of the game and his first. At 45/3, Pakistan was in trouble.
Shadab Khan joined him on the crease as Ifthikhar Ahmed continued. Pakistan was at 52/3 after 10 overs, with Shadab (6) and Iftikhar (19).
Pakistan was able to reenter the game because of some intelligent cricket played by Shadab and Iftikhar.
Pakistan was at 85/3 after 15 overs, with both batsmen having reached 29*.
Iftikhar’s dismissal for 30 off 32 balls put an end to their 42-run partnership. Ibrahim Zadran was caught at deep midwicket by Fareed Ahmad, who then took the wicket. Pakistan had 87/4 in 15.3 overs at this point.
Mohammad Nawaz, an all-around player, entered the field next. Pakistan needed 39 runs as the last four overs began.
By catching Nawaz’s leg before wicket for four points off of five balls, Fazalhaq Farooqi helped Afghanistan maintain their outstanding comeback in the game. Pakistan’s score was 105-6. With his excellent bowling, Farooqi kept up the pressure on Pakistan, removing the stumps of new batsman Khusdil Shah with the last ball of the over. Pakistan needed 21 runs from the final two overs after 18 overs had been bowled.
The Pakistani team then sent out Haris Rauf. However, Fareed Ahmad clean bowled him for a duck to claim his second wicket of the game.
Asif, who was out of partners at the opposite end, was the next to join. Naseem Shah. After the dangerman, Asif Ali was caught by Karim Janat for 16 off 8 balls, Fareed Ahmad secured his third wicket of the game.
With Pakistan needing 11 runs in the penultimate over, Mohammad Hasnain was the last Pakistani player to arrive at the crease.
Pakistan played well with the ball because they prevented the formation of any significant partnerships. Except for Ibrahim Zadran (35), Afghanistan’s hitters would not have been pleased with the performance at all because none of them capitalised on their strong starts.
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