BRISBANE: Skipper Mohammad Nabi played a defiant knock of 37-ball 51 to help Afghanistan post a competitive 155-run target against Pakistan before uninterrupted rain abandoned the match, here at Gabba on Wednesday.
In their final warm-up game before their opening T20 World Cup game against arch-rivals India on Sunday, Pakistan remained unable to fully test their batting strength as the openers Mohammad Rizwan and Babar Azam only batted for 2.2 overs and hoisted 19 runs before rain interrupted the play.
Afghanistan, on the other hand, went through a dismal start as Shaheen Afridi made an excellent return, coming out of injury, as he struck twice in his first two overs to reduce the opponents to 11/2 in just the third over.
The left-arm pacer dislodged the openers Hazratullah Zazai (9) and Rehamtullah Gurbaz (0) before Shadab Khan (3) stuck down No 4 Darwish Rasooli on a paltry total of 19.
Nabi, however, put up a brave resistance and averted the total collapse as he combined magnificently with No 8 batter Usman Ghani for 73 runs and took the scoreboard to 154/6 from 82/6 in the 14th over.
Ghani scored 32 off 20 laced with five boundaries while No 3 batter Ibrahim Zadran contributed in the middle with 35 off 34.
For Pakistan, Shahen and Haris each picked two wickets while spinners Shadab and Mohammad Nawaz also took a scalp apiece.
