Match Centre

Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu

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"Great victory. The day we are waiting. it's a great victory for Afghanistan, the people of Afghanistan," Gulbadin Naib says. "Start of the day, we saw the wicket, it was flat. Looks 300-plus. So credit to the bowlers. Nabi and Rashid, the way they bowled, thats why we bowled them out within 260. if you look at Pakistan, it's one of the best sides. You can't take anyone easily. At World Cup anything can happen, so we will do our best and the boys are very excited. I hope we do much better in the upcoming matches. Everyone knows about Afghanistan bowlers. Now the batters are also taking steps forward. So very happy. Thank you for the fans. Not just here, but all round the globe. They give energy to us. They are very proud of Afghanistan team"

"Definitely. Not enough runs on the board. 15-20 runs short. And we didn't start well with the ball, that's why we lost," Sarfaraz Ahmed says. "It's very tough if we're losing matches. I just tell my boys to back themselves. We're working with the coaching staff very hard. We will do well soon. Dugout is good. We just need to discuss among ourselves. Our batsmen are in good nick, we were 20 runs short, but we need to work on our bowling. Babar played a very good knock, he's our main batsman. And we picked Wahab because of his pace and his reverse swing and he did well"

"Good win for us against Pakistan," says Hashmatullah Shahidi. "I just wanted to go to the end and finish the game. We lost a few wickets in the middle overs. But I just wanted ot keep calm. Nabi also told me to keep calm. Pakistan pace attack is very good. But I did well and I'm very happy for that. It means a lot. We are here in the World Cup. First game was important for us and we won that and we will take advantage of that in other matches. Thanks to our fans in the crowd. They always support us and pray for us. Special thanks to them and all the fans back home"

Hamid: "Yahooooo.... Kabul is celebrating as we have won the world cup..."

James : "Here's hoping for more games like this when the World Cup starts. "

Umer: "I still have believe in this team, they are a bunch some good cricketers, Pakistan only needs a confidence boosting win early in th world cup and we might see a complete different side of this Pakistan. For me team selection in series against Australia was a big mistake. You need wins against quality sides before world cup "

6.00 pm There was real pressure there at the end. Pakistan's bowling attack has been dragged through the mud the last few days but Shadab Khan's return helped them look immeasurably better in the middle overs and Wahab Riaz put a magic spell on the ball and made it reverse swing like crazy. Given all of that, Afghanistan's mettle seeing it through and seeing it out needs to be praised. This is only their second World Cup campaign and they batted like pros.

Hazratullah Shahidi was monster; kept hitting Shaheen Afridi all round the park and when the left-arm quick tried to intimidate him with a few words, he just put his head down and asked him to stuff it.

Then, Hashmatullah Shahidi soaked in the pressure, never really panicking, not even when Wahab was breathing fire. Afghanistan were always going to throw up some surprises simply because of the talent in that squad. But they've shown here that they have the mettle too. The guts to see off a tense situation. The gumption to play percentage cricket and not make a mistake in the face of a quality attack and a rising required rate.

49.4
1
Wahab Riaz to Hashmatullah Shahidi, 1 run, late cuts it to deep third man and brings up Afghanistan's victory. Shahidi leaps up and punches the air. The crowd scream in delight. We've had a fine game of cricket. But remember, none of it goes down in the record books.
49.3
1
Wahab Riaz to Rashid Khan, 1 run, leading edge deflects the heat-seeking yorker on middle stump away to third man. Seriously, only the edge of the edge of the bat was keeping the ball from cannoning into the very visible set of stumps
49.2
2
Wahab Riaz to Rashid Khan, 2 runs, length ball and that allows Rashid to get under it and hoist it high over mid-off. He wants to finish the game. Use the small straight boundaries to his advantage but he's mis-hit the shot and he thumps his bat on the ground in disappointment
49.1
0
Wahab Riaz to Rashid Khan, no run, beats him with the perfect yorker outside off. Rashid's glide to third man doesn't work

Right then. Here's Wahab. And more reverse swinigng yorkers. He only has four runs to defend. Third man and fine leg are back. Sweeper is back. Mid-off and mid-on are up

END OF OVER:
49 | 10 Runs | AFG: 259/7 (4 runs required from 6 balls, RR: 5.28, RRR: 4.00)

  • Rashid Khan2 (3b)
  • Hashmatullah Shahidi73 (101b)
  • Shadab Khan10-0-64-1
  • Wahab Riaz7-0-42-3
48.6
1
Shadab Khan to Rashid Khan, 1 run, another seam up delivery, but Rashid is ready for it too. Drills it down the pitch and Shadab gets a hand on it. Enough to deflect it to where mid-on might be for a single
48.5
1
Shadab Khan to Hashmatullah Shahidi, 1 run, flicks a legbreak on middle to fine leg

Afghanistan 2nd innings Partnerships

WktRunsPlayers
1st51Mohammad ShahzadHazratullah Zazai
1st29Rahmat ShahHazratullah Zazai
2nd39Hashmatullah ShahidiRahmat Shah
3rd49Samiullah ShinwariHashmatullah Shahidi
4th10Asghar AfghanHashmatullah Shahidi
5th66Mohammad NabiHashmatullah Shahidi
6th3Gulbadin NaibHashmatullah Shahidi
7th2Hashmatullah ShahidiNajibullah Zadran
8th14Hashmatullah ShahidiRashid Khan