The experience of Shoaib Malik came to the fore, his twin boundaries off Aftab Alam taking Pakistan home by three wickets in their opening round Robin match of the 2018 Aisa Cup in Abu Dhabi on Friday.
Malik remained not out on 51 steering Pakistan home to a victory that would somewhat rub off the agony of their drastic performance against India in the previous match. 10 runs were needed from the last over and with Malik denying a single off the first ball, the game looked set for a crunch finish.
But he smashed the next ball for a six down leg, before sweeping another ball for a boundary in the same area to bring up the win with three balls remaining.
The foundation was, however, laid by the pair of Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam, who stitched together a partnership of 154 for the second wicket. Chasing 258 for a win, Pakistan were once again off to its worst start as Fakhar Zaman returned back for a duck, his second in as many matches.
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Imam and Babar then shared a great stand between themselves registering what happened to be the highest-run partnership at the venue. Imam scored 80 before being run-out, while Babar was stumped on 66.
At the moment they were batting, victory looked draped in a handkerchief for Pakistan, but their wickets fell in quick succession – Imam and Babar departed in the space of four runs – brought Afghanistan back into the context. Their dismissal led to a mini slope in the batting order. And soon from being at 254/1, Pakistan were reduced to 126/6.
But Malik held fort, playing in the company of first Mohammad Nawaz and then Hasan Ali, the latter batsmen smashing boundaries to ease the court
Earlier, opting to bat Afghanistan were off to a poor start when Ihsanmullah Janat was dismissed by Mohammad Nawaz for 10 runs. But Hashmatullah Shahidi together with the other batsmen around him guided Afghanistan to a victory.
Shahidi scored 97 not out and helped by skipper Asghar Afghan’s 67, they somehow scored 257 in 50 overs.
Image Source: Hindustan Times