ASIA CUP BUILD-UP
Mohammad Nawaz claimed a superb 5/19 in Pakistan’s win. © Getty
Left-arm spinner Mohammad Nawaz picked a scintillating five-fer – including a hat-trick – while Sufiyan Muqeem and Abrar Ahmed bagged two each as Pakistan routed Afghanistan on their way to the tri-series title victory. In a game where 29.5 overs of spin was bowled – the second-most in a men’s T20I featuring full-member teams, Afghanistan were bundled out for 66 in chase of Pakistan’s 141/8 in Sharjah.
Afghanistan did not anticipate the amount of spin on offer in the title clash, losing four inside the PowerPlay. Shaheen Afridi got the ball rolling with the wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the opening over. Legspinner Abrar got the better of the left-handed Sediqullah Atal in the fifth over before Nawaz struck twice in the sixth. The left-arm spinner trapped Darwish Rasooli leg and then had Azmatullah Omarzai caught behind off the next ball. On the first ball of his next over, he drew Ibrahim Zadran forward and had him stumped to complete his hat-trick. Afghanistan were down to 32/5, staring at an embarrassing finish.
Nawaz didn’t stop with just the hat-trick. Three balls later he dismissed Karim Janat and completed a double-wicket maiden. Rashid Khan arrived with his team in absolute tatters and attempted to push back but Abrar returned in the 11th over to account for Mohammad Nabi. In the 13th, Nawaz picked his fifth wicket – of Rashid. The Afghanistan captain miscued a shot towards cover and even as wicketkeeper Haris and Salman Agha had a bad collision, the latter held on to the catch. Muqeem then took two overs to wrap up what was left of Afghanistan’s chase to send them to their second-lowest all-out totals in T20Is.
Earlier in the evening, Pakistan batters too were restricted by the amount of grip and turn the surface offered the spinners. Rashid, Noor Ahmad and AM Ghazanfar picked six of the eight wickets to fall as Pakistan batted in a circumspect manner all through. Fazalhaq Farooqi took out Sahibzada Farhan in the first over but Saim Ayub and Fakhar Zaman got through the rest of the PowerPlay without letting Afghanistan make any further inroads. Noor ended that stand in the eighth over with Ayub’s wicket, Rashid dismissed Zaman in the next.
The two spinners dented Pakistan in tandem, as the batting side fell to 72/5 in the 12th over. Before he could weave magic with the ball, Nawaz attempted to throw Afghanistan off-track with the bat. He hit two sixes – off Ghazanfar and Farooqi in his 21-ball 25. Rashid picked his third wicket at the death – of Salman Agha – but not before giving away 17 valuable runs in the over that took Pakistan past the 100-run mark. Faheem Ashraf swung for the fences in his eight-ball stay worth 15 runs. It still left Pakistan with only a modest total, but on the night, that proved more than enough
Brief scores:Pakistan 141/8 in 20 overs (Fakhar Zaman 27, Mohammad Nawaz 25; Rashid Khan 3-38, Noor Ahmad 2-17) beat Afghanistan 66 in 15.5 overs (Rashid Khan 17; Mohammad Nawaz 5-19, Sufiyan Muqeem 2-9, Abrar Ahmed 2-17) by 75 runs
© Cricbuzz
