Salman made a 36-ball 53 not out before Rauf\u2019s four-wicket haul, including a double-wicket maiden, sealed Afghanistan\u2019s fate<\/p>\n
Pakistan 182 for 7 (Salman 53*, Fareed 2-47) beat Afghanistan 143 (Rashid 39, Gurbaz 38, Rauf 4-31, Afridi 2-21, Nawaz 2-23, Muqeem 2-25) by 39 runs
\nAn unbeaten half-century from captain Salman Agha and disciplined bowling from their quartet took Pakistan to a 39-run victory in the first game of the T20I tri-series against Afghanistan. After batting first on a surface curiously supportive of quick runs in Sharjah, Pakistan flew out of the blocks before Rashid Khan dragged them back after the powerplay.
\nBut their gameplan encourages attack right through the innings, and equipped with a deep batting line-up, Pakistan had the ammunition to keep going hard till the end. It was best summed up by their Nos. 6, 7 and 8 – Mohammad Nawaz, Mohammad Haris and Faheem Ashraf – who combined to score 50 runs in 29 balls.
\nAfghanistan\u2019s pursuit combined purpose with craft, tempering their strokeplay in favour of faithfully tailgating the required rate. Rahmanullah Gurbaz had the license to take advantage of the powerplay, but with Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal more cautious, it was clear Afghanistan were trusting their lower order to make up if they fell behind.
\nFarhan\u2019s start gives Pakistan early ground
\nAfghanistan had the better of all Pakistan batters in the powerplay bar one, and that was the one who counted. Sahibzada Farhan had made up his mind to take on Fazalhaq Farooqi straight from the outset, and intent crystallised into action when he drove him back over his head off the game\u2019s fourth ball. A four followed that six, before Azmatullah Omarzai was greeted with another piledriver over midwicket.
\nHe was gone by the 15th ball of the game, though, when Omarzai strangled him down leg to short fine, but there had been time enough to smash his way to 21 off ten balls. Afghanistan\u2019s spinners applied the squeeze effectively for the next eight overs as Pakistan kept losing wickets and scored just 51 in that period, but the buffer Farhan had provided his side meant they hadn\u2019t lost too much ground before the picked up the pace again.<\/p>\n
Captain takes on captain
\nRashid is arguably the best T20I bowler in the world, while Salman is inarguably not the best T20I batter. However, in this battle of captains, it was the less fancied skipper who landed all the telling blows. Having dispatched a couple of boundaries off Fareed Ahmad in the previous over, he took on Afghanistan\u2019s talisman, slapping a couple of on-side sixes in an over that leaked 17.
\nMohammad Nawaz, watching from the other end, joined the action when Omarzai returned, taking his captain\u2019s lead and slapping a couple of sixes in that 15th over.
\nSalman continued, and though that kind of explosiveness wasn\u2019t ever-present, he still finished with an unbeaten 53 off 36; Pakistan scored 99 in the final nine overs, and it had all begun with Salman\u2019s unlikely takedown of the Afghan superstar.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Salman made a 36-ball 53 not out before Rauf\u2019s four-wicket haul, including a double-wicket maiden, sealed Afghanistan\u2019s fate Pakistan 182 for 7 (Salman 53*, Fareed 2-47) beat Afghanistan 143 (Rashid 39, Gurbaz 38, Rauf 4-31, Afridi 2-21, Nawaz 2-23, Muqeem 2-25) by 39 runs An unbeaten half-century from captain Salman Agha and disciplined bowling from […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":500189,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[3],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-500179","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-sports"},"yoast_head":"\n