Pakistan pacer Naseem Shah held his nerves calm in a tense run chase and smashed consecutive sixes to power his side over the line and into the final of the Asia Cup 2022.
PAK 131/9 (19.2 Overs)
Pakistan need 11 runs with one wicket in hand. Fareed to bowl the final over
PAK 119/9 (19 Overs)
Farooqi comes to bowl his last
PAK 109/7 (18 Overs)
17.1: It’s the off-cutter. Pitches on off, and nips in. The batter looks to work this onside and looks to have been struck in front of off on the back foot.
Farooqi comes to bowl his last
PAK 105-5 (17 Overs)
16.2: Again tossed up outside off – brave from Rashid considering the result last ball – but this time it’s the leg spinner. Shadab looks to smash this down towards long-off, but only manages a thick looping outside edge to short third man
Rashid comes to bowl his last
PAK 91-4 (16 Overs)
15.3: Short and pulled straight into gleeful hands of deep midwicket! This was the slower ball, and it sounded clean off Iftikhar’s bat, but he just couldn’t get the distance.
Fareed continues
PAK 85-3 (15 Overs)
Rashid comes again
PAK 82-3 (14 Overs)
Fareed comes back
PAK 79-3 (13 Overs)
Mujeeb comes to bowl his last
PAK 72-3 (12 Overs)
Nabi comes again
PAK 58-3 (11 Overs)
Azmatullah Omarzai comes into the attack
PAK 52-3 (10 Overs)
Nabi continues
PAK 48-3 (9 Overs)
8.4: Another googly from Rashid, pitching outside off and hurrying the batter. Rizwan was on the back foot, looking to flick it but missed and was struck in front of the middle.
Rashid continues
PAK 43-2 (8 Overs)
Mohammad Nabi comes into the attack
PAK 39-2 (7 Overs)
Rashid Khan comes into the attack
PAK 35-2 (6 Overs)
Mujeeb comes to bowl his third
PAK 32-2 (5 Overs)
Fareed Ahmad comes into the attack
PAK 20-2 (4 Overs)
3.1: Full length around off, drops it towards extra cover and sets off. Najibullah charges at the ball, swoops low, picks it up with his right, turns around and nails a direct hit at the bowler’s end… and Fakhar is short of his ground.
Mujeeb continues
PAK 18-1 (3 Overs)
Farooqi continues
PAK 8-1 (2 Overs)
Mujeeb Ur Rahman to bowl from the other end
PAK 6-1 (1 Over)
0.2: A length ball, pitching around middle and just straightening to beat the inside edge and hit on the front pad.
Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan come out to chase for Pakistan. Fazalhaq Farooqi opens the bowling attack for Afghanistan.
PAKISTAN vs AFGHANISTAN (2nd INNING)
Pakistan bowlers displayed combined effort and decimated Afghanistan batting line-up as the Men in Green reduced Afghanistan to 129/6 in the allotted 20 overs of the all-important Super Four clash of Asia Cup 2022.
AFG 129-6 (20 Overs)
Haris to bowl the final over
AFG 119-6 (19 Overs)
Naseem comes to bowl his last
AFG 113-6 (18 Overs)
Hasnain comes to bowl his last
AFG 105-6 (17 Overs)
16.3: This is back of a length, quick and rushes Ibrahim who is looking to punch this down the ground off the back foot. The extra bounce surprises him though, and he can only manage a thick edge through to Rizwan.
Haris comes into the attack
AFG 104-5 (16 Overs)
Shadab comes to bowl his last
AFG 93-5 (15 Overs)
14.1: This is chopped on, as Nabi just hangs his bat out to this back of a length delivery in the channel. The ball crashes into the base of the stumps off the inside edge.
Naseem comes back into the attack
AFG 91/4 (14 Overs)
13.6: This is the pick of the punch as it’s quicker, seam up, and Zadran is unable to get the distance on this loft over long-on. It goes high, but straight down the gullet of the man in the deep.
Shadab comes back
AFG 83-3 (13 Overs)
Hasnain replaces Haris
AFG 79-3 (12 Overs)
11.2: This is high and straight down the throat of Fakar at long-on! The pressure has paid off, as Janat looks for the big slog sweep against the spin, but only ends up top-edging this high into the Sharjah sky.
Nawaz comes to bowl his last
AFG 77-2 (11 Overs)
Haris comes back into the attack
AFG 72-2 (10 Overs)
Nawaz comes to bowl his third
AFG 64-2 (9 Overs)
Shadab comes again
AFG 61-2 (8 Overs)
Nawaz continues
AFG 53-2 (7 Overs)
Shadab Khan replaces Hasnain
AFG 48-2 (6 Overs)
Mohammad Nawaz replaces Haris
AFG 43-2 (5 Overs)
4.5: A length ball around off and middle, bowled at 119kph. Zazai failed to spot it early, and ended up pushing at it to work it towards short midwicket. But the ball sneaked through the gap between bat and pad to uproot the leg stump.
Hasnain comes back
AFG 37-1 (4 Overs)
3.5: A length ball at 144kph, pitching around off and slightly coming in with the angle. Gurbaz moves across and looks to smash through midwicket. No contact and the ball crashes into the off stump.
Haris Rauf comes into the attack
AFG 27-0 (3 Overs)
Naseem continues
AFG 20-0 (2 Overs)
Mohammad Hasnain to bowl from the other end
AFG 4-0 (1 Over)
Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz come out to bat for Afghanistan. Naseem Shah to open the bowling attack.
PAKISTAN vs AFGHANISTAN (1st INNING)
SHARJAH: Pakistan have won the toss and elected to field first against Afghanistan in the all-important Super Four clash of the Asia Cup 2022.
PLAYING XIs
Pakistan: Babar Azam (c), Mohammad Rizwan (wk), Fakhar Zaman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Khushdil Shah, Asif Ali, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Nawaz, Naseem Shah, Haris Rauf, Mohammad Hasnain
Afghanistan: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fareed Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi
HEAD TO HEAD
Matches-2, Pakistan-2, Afghanistan-0
