Match Centre
Scorecard Summary
PAKISTAN 262 (47.5 OVERS)
- Shoaib Malik44 (59)
- Babar Azam112 (108)
- Mohammad Nabi3/46 (10)
- Rashid Khan2/27 (9)
AFGHANISTAN 263/7 (49.4 OVERS)
- Hashmatullah Shahidi*74 (102)
- Hazratullah Zazai49 (28)
- Wahab Riaz3/46 (7.4)
- Imad Wasim2/29 (10)
Scorer: Ranjith P | Commentator: Alagappan Muthu
That's all we have for you. From Peter and myself, we thank you for your company. Good night. But before we go...
ESPNcricinfo is proud to present Cricket Picks, a fast and fun predictor game that tests whether cricket fans can accurately pick the results of each match over the entire Cricket World Cup, along with predicting the best performers of the entire tournament.
It works over three stages, beginning with pre-tournament (now, till May 30) and up to the final.
All it takes is 60 seconds per week to predict who will win the next week's worth of games, week by week, over the round robin stage and the finals.
Players can create their own private competitions for family, friends or work colleagues, join official competitions for fans of each nation, or just play solo against everyone else in their Cricinfo edition or globally
"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.
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