Global Courant
After beating England, Afghanistan pull off the second shock of the Cricket World Cup, beating Pakistan by eight wickets.
Afghanistan caused another major upset at the Cricket World Cup as they defeated struggling Pakistan by eight wickets, winning two matches for the first time in the same edition of the tournament.
After overwhelming England eight days ago, the ninth-placed Afghans celebrated only their third ever World Cup win on Monday, the other against Scotland in 2015 in their first appearance.
An aggressive opening stand of 130 runs between Ibrahim Zadran (87) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) orchestrated Afghanistan’s 286-2 in 49 overs against Pakistan’s unparalleled pace and spin bowling.
Rahmat Shah and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi built on the solid first-wicket stand by sharing an unbeaten 96-run third-wicket stand. Shah remained unbeaten on 77 while Shahidi scored 48 not out as he lifted the win with a boundary against Shaheen Afridi at square leg.
Pakistan, who won the toss and elected to bat, made 282-7 against a spin-heavy quartet, with captain Babar Azam (74) and Abdullah Shafique (58) scoring half-centuries.
It was Pakistan’s first defeat in a one-day international (ODI) against Afghanistan, surpassing the previous highest successful ODI chase of 274 against the United Arab Emirates nine years ago.
“The way we chased today was very professional,” Shahidi said in his post-match interview.
We will try our best to play positive cricket and do a lot for our country… The match was in our hands from the beginning to the end.”
Azam lamented Pakistan’s failure to take wickets in the middle overs after posting a decent total.
“If you are not good in even one department at a World Cup, you lose. We started well while bowling but we couldn’t take any wickets,” Azam said in his post-match interview.
“All credit to Afghanistan. We don’t play good cricket, (especially) in bowling and fielding… There was no pressure on their batsmen.
A third successive defeat left Pakistan in a must-win situation for a place in the semi-finals with just four points from five matches.
Afghanistan also kept their slim hopes alive with four points in as many matches as they moved into sixth place, behind Pakistan in terms of net run-rate, leaving England at the bottom of the table. The top four teams out of ten in the round-robin stage qualify for the semi-finals.
