World Cup 2023: Afghanistan defeated Pakistan for the first time in ODI

In the ODI World Cup 2023, Afghanistan team has achieved another big upset and won against Pakistan by 8 wickets. This is Pakistan’s third consecutive defeat in the World Cup and now the path to reach the semi-finals has become very difficult for them. Pakistan had scored 282 runs while batting first in this match, whereas Afghanistan team achieved this target in 49 overs and was successful in defeating Pakistan for the first time in ODI format. This is Afghanistan’s second victory in the World Cup 2023.

The pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran gave an excellent start

Afghanistan team had a target of 283 runs to win this match. In such a situation, the team was expecting a better start from the opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. Both the players did not disappoint and took the team’s score to 60 runs without any loss in the first 10 overs. After this, Gurbaz and Zadran started scoring runs rapidly and the team’s score crossed 100 in the 16th over itself. There was a partnership of 130 runs between both the players for the first wicket. The first blow to the Afghanistan team in this match was in the form of Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who became the victim of Shaheen Afridi while playing a personal innings of 65 runs.

Rehmat and Zadran made an important partnership

Rahmat Shah, who came to bat after the fall of Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s wicket, did not let the run pace slow down and kept increasing the score along with Ibrahim Zadran. However, Zadran appeared to be in trouble due to a thigh strain while batting and due to this he became the victim of Hasan Ali after scoring 83 runs in 113 balls. Afghanistan team lost its second wicket in this match at the score of 190 in the 34th over. There was a partnership of 60 runs in 74 balls for the second wicket between Zadran and Rahmat Shah.

Captain Shahidi and Rahmat came close to achieving a historic victory in the match.

After losing the second wicket at the score of 190, captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, who came to bat for the Afghanistan team, along with Rahmat Shah took 1 and 2 runs and did not give any chance to Pakistan to make a comeback in this match. Both the players were continuously moving towards the target while taking the match closer. Afghanistan team needed 54 runs in the last 8 overs. In such a situation, both the players scored 35 runs in the next 4 overs and completely eliminated Pakistan from the match. The Afghan team achieved this target on the last ball of the 49th over at the loss of 2 wickets. While Rahmat Shah played an unbeaten inning of 77 runs, captain Shahidi scored unbeaten 48 runs and a big partnership of 96 runs in 93 balls was seen between the two for the third wicket.

Babar and Shafiq scored half-centuries for Pakistan, Noor took 3 wickets

If we talk about the innings of Pakistan team in this match, then opening batsman Abdullah Shafiq played an inning of 58 runs in 75 balls. Whereas captain Babar Azam scored 74 runs in 92 balls. Apart from this, Iftikhar Ahmed, who came to bat in the last overs, played an innings of 40 runs in 27 balls. For Afghanistan, Noor Ahmed took 3 wickets while Naveen Ul Haq took 2 wickets.