Teenager Noor Ahmad (3-39) impressed Afghanistan with his spin while Pakistan's bowlers struggled to step up to the occasion; Watch South Africa take on Bangladesh on Tuesday, October 24 in Mumbai, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 9.30am
Tuesday 24 October 2023 06:07, UK
Afghanistan completed a historic eight-wicket victory over Pakistan for the first time in ODI cricket in Chennai.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) and Ibrahim Zadran (87) shared an incredible opening stand of 130 off 128 balls chasing Pakistan's 282-7.
Pakistan's bowlers toiled hard to dismiss the openers in the 22nd and 34th over respectively, but Afghanistan captain Hashmat Shahidi (48no) and Rahmat Shah (77no) added 96 runs, with the skipper scoring a boundary off the final ball, to post 286-2 and lead his side to a momentous victory.
Afghanistan opted for four spinners with 18-year-old Noor Ahmad (3-39), coming in place of Fazalhaq Farooqi,
impressing on his debut, picking up the important wickets of Pakistan's skipper Babar Azam (74) and Muhammad Rizwan (8).
It is the first time Afghanistan have won two games at a World Cup after they beat England by 69 runs earlier in the tournament.
The win sees Pakistan drop to fifth place with Afghanistan climbing to sixth, behind on net run-rate, while England fall to the bottom of the World Cup table.
Pakistan’s openers Imam ul-Haq (17) and Abdullah Shafique (58) motored in the powerplay sharing an opening stand of 56-0, after winning the toss and electing to bat.
But all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai (1-50) struck the very next ball with a short delivery that Imam miscused mid-wicket and was caught by Naveen-ul-Haq.
Shafique and Babar looked in imperious touch as they added 54 more runs to Pakistan’s tally, with the skipper reaching his 30th half-century in ODI cricket.
Afghanistan turned to left-arm wrist spinner Noor who trapped Shafique lbw on review and then claimed the wicket of Pakistan's big hitter Rizwan, who swept a wide ball to short fine leg leaving the former champions 120-3.
Middle-order batters Iftikhar Ahmed (40) and Shadab Khan (40) gave Pakistan fans some hope adding 73 runs, with the former smashing two boundaries and four sixes, but fell victim to pace-bowler Naveen-ul-Haq (2-52) who removed both batters in the final over.
Iftikhar’s impressive cameo came to an end when he lofted a length ball but didn’t get enough distance on it and was caught at deep extra cover, while a slower ball from Naveen saw Shadab caught at long-on by Mohammad Nabi.
The tone for the chase was set from the very first over when Shaheen Shah Afridi was hit for two boundaries, the first Gurbaz tucked into the leg-side and Zadran drove Pakistan's pace bowler through the covers for four.
Haris Rauf was then smashed for four boundaries in his first spell of the day, all coming from Gurbaz as the Afghanistan opener reached his fifth ODI half-century and saw his side reach 130-0 by the 21st over.
Afridi broke the partnership with a short ball that was clubbed to Usama Mir at deep third, but by then Afghanistan had made significant progress in the run chase.
Hasan Ali claimed the second wicket - the only other one to fall in Afghanistan's innings - when Zadran edged to Rizwan bringing skipper Hashmat to the crease in the 34th over.
Hashmat and Rahmat shared an unbroken winning stand of 96 off 93 deliveries as Pakistan used up all their bowling options with Rauf (0-53), Usama Mir (0-55), Shadab (0-49) and Iftikhar (0-27) not picking up a single wicket.
The historic victory looked possible when Afghanistan only needed 30 runs from 30 balls by the 45th over with eight wickets in hand.
The Afghanistan supporters at the MA Chidambaram Stadium began celebrating the victory early in the final over but skipper Hashmat gave them an extra boost when he whacked Afridi to deep backward square leg for four to complete the historic win.
Pakistan captain Babar Azam:
"The loss really hurt us. We got a good total but our bowling was not up to the mark because we didn’t get a wicket in the middle overs.
"In World Cups you need to be up to the mark in all three departments and we haven't done that. Afghanistan played very well but we gave them a lot of runs and it cost us.
"All credit to Afghanistan. We were not playing good cricket. We’ll try to fix up for the next match.”
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi:
"The way we chased was very nice and it will help us in other games now too.
“From the start of this tournament we wanted to make it a historic one. We will try our best to play positive cricket and do our best for our country.
"Our bowling was very good, especially our spinners. We gave Noor a chance and he showed his talent.”
South Africa come up against Bangladesh on Tuesday, October 24 in Mumbai, live on Sky Sports Cricket from 9am (first ball 9.30am).
