SHARJAH – Afghanistan beat Pakistan by 18 runs in the fourth match of the Tri-Nation T20I Series at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday evening.
Chasing a 170-run target for victory, Pakistan managed to reach 151/9 as top and middle order batters either failed or failed to capitalise on starts.
Haris Rauf made a career-best 34 off 16 balls, laced with four sixes, to give some respectability to the team total. Fakhar Zaman contributed 25 runs, Salman Agha 20, Sahibzada Farhan 18, Faheem Ashraf 14 and Mohammad Nawaz 12 runs.
Fazalhaq Farooqi, Noor Ahmed, Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan took two wickets each. Salman Agha was run out while taking the second run casually. Ibrahim Zadran was named player of the match.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Afghanistan lost the key wicket of Rehmanullah Gurbaz (8) in the second over with just 10 runs on the board.
Ibrahim Zadran (65) and Sediqullah Atal (64) stitched a 113-run partnership for the second wicket to set the stage for a strong finish. Faheem Ashraf took four wickets at the backend of the innings to restrict Afghanistan to 169/5 in the allocated 20 overs. Saim Ayub got one wicket.
Afghanistan Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan (capt), Mohammad Nabi, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi
Pakistan Playing XI: Saim Ayub, Sahibzada Farhan, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Agha (capt), Hasan Nawaz, Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Haris (wk), Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Shah Afridi, Haris Rauf, Sufiyan Muqeem
