In the T20I Tri-Series Final, Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first in Sharjah. However, the start was not very good. Sahibzada Farhan was dismissed in the first over without opening the account. The pitch was spin-friendly, and Afghanistan bowlers took full advantage of it. Pakistan’s batting continued to struggle, and no batsman could cross the 30-run mark.
Salman Ali Agha, who was struggling in the beginning, added some important runs in the end by hitting two sixes in an over of Rashid Khan, and Faheem Ashraf also gave some relief to the team by hitting a four on the first ball. A total of 17 runs were scored in that over, which was a bright spot in the slow innings of the entire match. Pakistan scored a total of 141 runs, which seemed less at first, but the story turned out to be something else.
Pakistan’s bowling started brilliantly. Shaheen Shah Afridi put Afghanistan under pressure by dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz early. But the real havoc broke out when Mohammad Nawaz came to bowl in the fifth over. First he got the umpire to give him out LBW on a strong appeal, and then on the very next ball he took a catch and sent the new batsman to the pavilion.
Then came the hat-trick moment, when Ibrahim Zadran was cleverly taken out by Mohammad Haris and stumped. Three balls later Nawaz took another wicket, and Afghanistan’s score became 6 wickets for 32 runs. In this brilliant spell Nawaz took a total of 5 wickets, and it seemed as if he could take a wicket on every ball. The entire Afghanistan team collapsed for just 66 runs. Their batsmen neither got a chance to score runs nor did they get any help from the pitch. Apart from Nawaz, the rest of the bowlers also bowled accurately. At one time it seemed that Pakistan’s score was low, but Afghanistan’s weak batting completely changed the course of the match.
This big win has given Pakistan a big morale boost before the Asia Cup. Mohammad Nawaz proved that Captain Babar Azam was absolutely right in calling him a “match winner.” In this match, he single-handedly changed the game.
