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| Afghanistan's historic victory over Pakistan: 'PSL leopards piled up in Sharjah' |
Afghanistan defeated Pakistan by six wickets in the first T20 match of the three-match T20 series to be played in Sharjah.
This is the first time in the international matches that the Afghanistan team has defeated Pakistan, in all the previous T20 matches there has been tough match but Pakistan has been victorious every time.
Pakistan fielded a somewhat inexperienced side today with four players making their debuts. The debutants included Saeem Ayub, Tayyab Tahir, Ehsanullah, and Zaman Khan.
Captain Shadab Khan won the toss and decided to bat first and it was clear from the start that this pitch was going to be a tough one to bat on.
Saeem Ayub and Mohammad Haris, who came in to open, gave Pakistan a very slow start. However, after a few overs, Pakistan was more concerned with how to save wickets than their run rate.
Earlier, Haris, Abdullah Shafiq, and Saeem Ayub were targeted by the fast bowlers during the power play. Then the spinners made things worse for Pakistan by showing Tayyab Tahir and Azam Khan the way to the pavilion.
Senior players Shadab Khan, Imad Wasim, and Faheem Ashraf could not get Pakistan out of this situation and thus the Pakistan team could score only 92 runs for the loss of nine wickets in the allotted overs.
Imad Wasim scored the highest 18 runs for Pakistan while Fazal Haq Farooqui, Muhammad Nabi, and Mujeebur Rahman scored two wickets each for Afghanistan.
Rahmanullah Garbaz was an aggressive batsman when Afghanistan opened the batting. However, Pakistan's hopes were restored as PSL player of the tournament Ehsanullah took two wickets in the bowling attack.
Imad Wasim, who made a comeback in the T20 team, showed the best bowling and got one wicket by giving 11 runs in four overs, but the Pakistani bowling was helpless in front of the experience of Mohammad Nabi and Najeebullah Zadran. Thus, Afghanistan achieved this target in the 18th over at the loss of only four wickets.
Speaking after this historic victory, Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan said that this victory was important for them as earlier they always lost by small margins.
He said that 'we didn't know anything about the pitch today, but we thought that after realizing the situation in the first few overs, we will make a strategy accordingly.'
On the other hand, Shadab Khan said that the purpose of this series was to allow young players, and maybe due to the fear of playing international cricket, the batting could not go on today, but we will give them confidence in the future.
He further said that there were positive aspects of today's defeat including Ehsanullah's bowling and Imad Wasim's comeback and we will try our best in the next matches.
On social media, where users are criticizing Pakistan's batting, most of the users are talking about not putting too much burden on the new players.
One user wrote that 'slowly people are realizing why Babar and Rizwan used to start slowly, Pakistan team is nothing without them both.' Similarly, another user said that because of Babar and Rizwan, We got used to not losing wickets early, and they raised our standards.
A user named Farhan Skand wrote that "Don't press the new boys under the burden of expectations by calling them Babar Azam and Rizwan's Naamul Badal. Instead of taking the place of Babar and Rizwan, let the children make their own place, otherwise, they will show their skills." They will not get it.'
"PSL leopards piled up in Sharjah," wrote one user.