Nassem and Shadab propel Pakistan to a stunning 1-wicket victory against Afghanistan

Nassem and Shadab propelled Pakistan to a stunning 1-wicket victory in the second match of the one-day international (ODI) series against Afghanistan in Hambantota, Sri Lanka.

Thanks to the brilliant batting of Shadab Khan and Naseem Shah in the last overs, Pakistan achieved the target of 301 runs set by Afghanistan at the loss of 9 wickets on the fifth ball of the last over and won the 3-match series.

In the second ODI of the series, Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first.

Rehmanullah Garbaz and Ibrahim Zardan opened the Afghan batting confidently unlike the first match.

Both the batsmen did not give any chance to Pakistani bowlers and put the team in the best position by establishing a long partnership.

Rahmanullah Garbaz also completed his 123-ball century, his fifth career century, during this brilliant partnership of openers, his century included 7 fours and 3 sixes.

The first batsman to be dismissed for the Afghanistan team was Ibrahim Zadran, who shared an excellent partnership of 227 runs with Rahmanullah Gurbaz.

Ibrahim Zadran scored 80 off the fifth ball of the 40th over. He was caught by Iftikhar Ahmed off Osama Mir, ending his 101-ball innings that included 6 fours and 2 sixes.

Gurbaz continued his responsible batting and along with Mohammad Nabi took the score to 256 runs and scored 151 runs off 151 balls with the help of 14 fours and 3 sixes to become the wicket of Shaheen Shah Afridi.

Rashid Khan was sent in early to bat aggressively but managed to add just 2 runs and fell to Shaheen Shah Afridi on 260.

Shaheen Shah Afridi gave Pakistan another wicket at the score of 270, but this time he scored a run and ran out Shahidullah.

Mohammad Nabi brought Afghanistan’s score close to 300 from the second end, but his innings was limited to 29 runs with the help of 3 fours and was dismissed by Naseem Shah.

Afghanistan scored 300 runs for 5 wickets in the allotted 50 overs, setting a tough target for Pakistan.

Hashmatullah Shahidi scored 15 runs and Abdul Rahman remained not out by scoring 4 runs.

On behalf of Pakistan, Shaheen Shah Afridi took the most 2 wickets, and Naseem Shah and Usama Mir took one wicket each.

In the first match of the series, Haris Rauf, who won the man of the match award by taking 5 wickets, could not get any wickets by giving 48 runs in 7 overs and proved to be an expensive bowler.

Pakistan’s openers provided a 52-run opening but Fazal Haq dismissed veteran batsman Fakhar Zaman after scoring 30 runs.

Imam-ul-Haq along with captain Babar Azam pushed the score forward and also completed his half-century during the partnership.

This was Imam’s second consecutive half-century.

Imam-ul-Haq and Babar Azam shared a partnership of 118 runs during which both the batsmen scored half-centuries.

Babar Azam scored 53 runs off 66 balls with the help of 6 fours. Fazal Haq Farooqui took the Pakistan skipper’s wicket at the critical moment of the match and sent him back to the pavilion with a total of 170 on the scoreboard.

Mohammad Rizwan failed once again and was run out after adding just 2 runs to the score.

Agha Salman was sent in early to bat in the second match as well but he scored 14 runs off 15 balls with 2 fours and his wicket fell at a score of 208 runs.

Afghanistan’s experienced all-rounder Muhammad Nabi took Osama Mir’s wicket and did not even allow him to open the account.

Pakistan’s score was 208 runs in 38 overs and 93 more runs were required for victory, in which Imamul Haq played 91 runs off 105 balls with the help of 4 fours.

Mujibur Rehman took  Imam’s wicket caught by Riaz Hasan.

Iftikhar Ahmed also got out on the important occasion on the ball of Abdul Rehman, he had scored 17 runs off 24 balls.

Shaheen Shah Afridi also looked in a hurry and failed to support Shadab Khan and fell victim to Fazal Haq Farooqui, contributing only 4 runs.

Shadab Khan revived the team’s hopes of victory in difficult times and took the team’s score to 190 runs in 49 overs and scored a brilliant 48 runs but was run out in the last over by Farooqi trying to bat.

Haris Rauf and Naseem Shah scored 11 runs in the last over, Naseem Shah hit 2 fours and Haris scored 3 runs.

Pakistan scored 302 runs for the loss of 9 wickets on the fifth ball of the last over to win the match by one wicket and also claimed the series 0-2.

Shadab Khan was awarded the Man of the Match Award.