After beating England, Afghanistan pull off their second shock of the Cricket World Cup – thumping Pakistan by eight-wickets.
Afghanistan created one other massive upset on the Cricket World Cup as they thumped struggling Pakistan by eight wickets to win two video games on the identical version of the event for the primary time.
After stunning England eight days in the past, the ninth-ranked Afghans celebrated solely their third-ever win on the World Cup on Monday, the opposite coming in opposition to Scotland in 2015 of their first look.
An aggressive 130-run opening stand between Ibrahim Zadran (87) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) orchestrated Afghanistan’s 286-2 in 49 overs in opposition to out-of-sort Pakistan’s tempo and spin bowling.
Rahmat Shah and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi constructed on the strong first-wicket stand by sharing an unbeaten 96-run third-wicket stand. Shah remained unbeaten on 77 whereas Shahidi scored 48 not out as he raised the victory with a boundary in opposition to Shaheen Afridi at sq. leg.
Pakistan, which received the toss and elected to bat, made 282-7 in opposition to a spin-heavy quartet with captain Babar Azam (74) and Abdullah Shafique (58) scoring half-centuries.
It was Pakistan’s first loss in a one-day worldwide (ODI) in opposition to Afghanistan, which bettered its earlier highest profitable ODI chase of 274 made in opposition to the United Arab Emirates 9 years in the past.
“The way in which we chased in the present day was very skilled,” Shahidi stated in his post-match interview.
We’ll strive our greatest to play optimistic cricket, and do quite a bit for our nation … The sport was in our fingers from the start till the tip.”
Azam rued Pakistan’s failure to take wickets within the center overs after setting an honest whole.
“In a World Cup, in case you are not good even in a single division, you lose. We began nicely whereas bowling, however we couldn’t take wickets,” Azam stated in his post-match interview.
“All credit score to Afghanistan. We’re not enjoying good cricket, [especially] in bowling and fielding … There was no strain on their batsmen.”
A 3rd successive defeat pushed Pakistan right into a must-win scenario for a spot within the semifinals with solely 4 factors from 5 matches.
Afghanistan additionally saved their slim hopes alive with 4 factors in as many video games as they moved into the quantity six spot, behind Pakistan on web run-rate, leaving England on the backside of the desk. The highest 4 groups out of 10 within the round-robin stage qualify for the semifinals.