Haris Rauf 5fer hand Afghanistan humiliating defeat in 1st ODI
Haris Rauf 5fer hand Afghanistan humiliating defeat in 1st ODI: Afghanistan were bowled out for 59, their second-lowest score in ODI cricket, in the first match of the three-match series between Pakistan and Afghanistan. Earlier today, Pakistan’s skipper won the toss and decided to bat first on a surface that was dry and helpful for spinners.
This series was considered a battle between Pakistan’s batting and Afghanistan’s quality spin attack. In the first innings, Pakistan batters struggled against the spin attack of Afghanistan, as out of 10 wickets, 8 fell to spinners. In the first over, Fakhar edged Fazal Haq Farooqi’s ball to slip, and then in the second over, Mujeeb-ur-Rahman took the wicket of Babar Azam, which was the prized scalp.
Rizwan comes and counterattacks, but he also couldn’t survive Mujeeb and got out. After Rizwan, Agha couldn’t contribute much. Iftikhar and Imam contributed and took the score to 112. Iftikhar then got out to a soft dismissal on Nabi’s last delivery of the over. As the innings went on, Pakistan struggled and couldn’t score at a fast rate. The highlight was Imam’s batting, in which he scored 61 runs and was the highest run scorer for Pakistan. Shadab also contributed with 39 vital runs.
At the halfway stage, Afghanistan were favourites to win this match, but Shaheen Afridi struck twice in his second over. Similarly, Naseem, another quality bowler, struck in his first ball, bouncing out Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi.
First-change bowler Haris Rauf came in in the eighth over of the innings and got the wicket on his first ball. As the innings went on, Haris rattled Afghanistan batters with his sheer pace and took five wickets for 18 runs. Shadab also took a wicket.
Pakistan won the first match by 142 runs and took a 1-0 lead in a three-match series. The second ODI of the three-match series will be played on August 24 at the same ground in Hambantota where the first match was played.
