- Saiman Das
Afghanistan cricket team players scripted history in the wake of their complete and comprehensive performance over Pakistan in the first two T20Is of the three-match T20I series.
Afghanistan cricket team locked horns with the Pakistan cricket team in the T20I series. As it turned out, they went on to beat Pakistan by 6 wickets in the T20I opener at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah.
Rightly so, they took the first lead in the three-match T20I series. The Afghans marched on ahead with the winning template and reaped rewards in the second T20I too.
Afghanistan cricket team got the better of the Pakistan cricket team by seven wickets at the same venue in the second T20I. With this victory, the Afghanistan cricket team secured a historic T20I series win over Pakistan.
For the first time, Afghanistan defeated Pakistan in a T20I series. However, the third and final T20I went in favour of Pakistan. The Green Shirts won the game by 66 runs and steered clear of a whitewash.
During the dead rubber, a disturbing incident took place which shocked the cricket fraternity. Pakistan bowler Ihsanullah bowled a lethal Bouncer to Najibullah Zadran which saw the latter missing the ball completely.
The delivery was so fierce that it had Afghanistan batsman Zadran bleeding. Meanwhile, Mohammad Haris went up to the injured player to check if he was alright.
The video clip of the same has gone viral on the internet. Batting first, Pakistan posted 182 for the loss of seven wickets in their allotted quota of 20 overs.
In response, Afghanistan were bowled out for 116. Shadab Khan was named the player of the match for his all-round performances. He scored 28 off 17 including 5 boundaries.
On the other hand, he took three wickets to his name, giving away 13 runs in 4 overs. After receiving the man of the match award, Shadab Khan said, “We wanted to finish on a high note and we have done that.”
“We had to adapt to the conditions and the batters managed to do that today. We needed to play for Pakistan’s pride and we did it. The main motive of this series was to give the youngsters a chance, hopefully, they will get confidence from these games and it will help them in the long run,” he further added.