COLOMBO – Pakistan thrashed Afghanistan by 59 runs in the third ODI at R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo on Saturday evening to clinch the series 3-0.
Afghanistan whitewash means that Pakistan will start the Asia Cup campaign as the ICC’s top-ranked ODI team.
Chasing a difficult target of 269 runs to avoid imminent whitewash at the hands of green shirts, Afghanistan was all out at 209 runs in 48.4 overs.
After the failure of the top order to cope with steady Pakistan bowling, the last three batters led by Mujeeb-ur-Rehman provided some respectability to Afghanistan’s total.
Afghanistan lost six batsmen with only 75 runs on the board. At this stage, Afghanistan batters were facing it tough to cope with the quality fast bowling and spin attack of Pakistan. After losing the seventh wicket at 97, Shahidullah was joined by Mujeeb-ur-Rehman who played the top inning of his career.
Shahidullah departed at 154 runs but Mujeeb continued hitting boundaries both against quicks and spin bowlers. Before his departure at 199, he scored his first and the fastest fifty from any Afghanistan batter. He top-scored for his side with 64 runs on just 37 balls while hitting five fours and the same number of maximums.
Soon after his going back to the hut, Afghanistan was bundled out on 209 runs in 48 hours.
Shadab Khan bagged three wickets, and Shaheen Shah Afridi, Faheem Ashraf and Muhammad Nawaz took two wickets each while Agha Salan took one wicket.
Muhammad Rizwan was declared player of the match for a gritty fifty on a tough pitch. i
Imam-ul-Haq was named man of the series.
Earlier, skipper Babar Azam decided to bat first on a dry pitch with slight grass cover.
Pakistani openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq made a cautious start against disciplined Afghanistan bowling upfront.
Fakhar Zaman was the first to go back to the hut on an individual score of 27 runs. After losing the first wicket with 36 runs on the board, Pakistan lost the second opener at the team score of 52 runs.
Now Babar Azam and Muhammad Rizwan were together facing difficulties in rotating strikes and finding boundaries against disciplined bowling on a sluggish track.
But they continued sticking to the task of staying at the wicket. After the second drink break, both the batters started finding boundaries that helped them reaching to their half-centuries. They put on a valuable 110-run partnership before Babar Azam got out on an individual score of 60 runs. He hit four boundaries and one huge six against Rashid Khan.
Saud Shakil (9), top scorer Muhammad Rizwan (67) and hero of the last match Shadab Khan (3) got out in quick successions.
It brought Agha Salman and Muhammad Nawaz together who stitched a valuable 61-run partnership to guide Pakistan to cross the 250-run mark.
Muhammad Nawaz got out on 30 while Agha Salman scored unbeaten 38 runs.
