Pakistan vs Afghanistan LIVE: ICC Cricket World Cup result and reaction as minnows earn surprising win
Afghanistan defeat Pakistan by eight wickets to claim second victory of the tournament
Pakistan’s up-and-down Cricket World Cup campaign continued today as they were beaten by Afghanistan in Chennai. Babar Azam won the toss and elected to bat first but his team failed to assert their dominance on the associate nation.
Afghanistan’s quartet of spin options restricted Pakistan to ones and twos while continuously taking wickets through the middle of the innings. Babar scored a fine 74 and some late innings hitting from Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed took the team to 282-7 at the halfway stage.
It seemed to be a challenging total but the Afghanistan batters made light work of it. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran put on 130 for the first wicket with both openers scoring over 50 before being dismissed. Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi then combined through the middle overs, taking advantage of loose bowling and poor fielding to guide the team over the line with an over to spare.
Relive the updates from Chennai plus get the latest Cricket World Cup odds and tips right here:
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi
“Yes, this win tastes nice!
“The way we chased was very professional and the way we did that will help us going into our other games now.
“We are playing quality cricket. We have always had belief and at the start of the tournament I told my team I wanted to make it a historic one for our country and our people. We did that against England and now today against Pakistan.
“We are looking forward to playing positive cricket in our next games.
“Our bowling was very good, especially our spinners. We gave Noor a chance and trusted his talent. But with the bat, the way we started the innings gave us a lot of confidence and momentum.
“We had the game in our hands from the beginning until the end and the partnership between myself and Rahmat was also very good.”
Reaction from Ibrahim Zadran
Afghanistan’s Ibrahim Zadran was awarded the Player of the Match trophy and had this to say after guiding his team to their second win of the tournament:
“I wanted to go out with positive intent and with a positive mind.
“Me and Gurbaz have put on a lot of good partnerships together. We have played together since we were 16 so we always have good communication.
“The support from him at the other end was very important and gave the team good momentum. In this kind of event, this is so big for me. I am feeling very proud of myself and for my country.”
Reaction from Pakistan captain Babar Azam
”That really hurt us. We got a good total. Our bowling is not up to the mark.
“In World Cups you need all three departments firing and we haven’t done that. Afghanistan played very well but we gave them a lot of runs and it cost us.
“We stuck to our plan in the middle overs but we needed wickets and we couldn’t get them.
“We were backing ourselves to win today. But they played well in all three departments and we didn’t. We have got to put that right in our next match.
“We didn’t hit the right lengths, especially with our spinners. We would bowl a few dot balls and build pressure but then a bad ball would give them a boundary.”
Pakistan vs Afghanistan
48.6
FOUR! Shaheen Afridi to Hashmatullah Shahidi. Full toss, off stump on the front foot Slog, well timed in the air under control past deep backward square leg for 4 runs.
Pakistan vs Afghanistan
48.5
Shaheen Afridi to Rahmat Shah. Length ball, outside off stump on the front foot working, to mid on for 1 run, shy attempt by Azam, fielded by Khan.
Pakistan vs Afghanistan
48.4
Shaheen Afridi to Hashmatullah Shahidi. Length ball, outside off stump down the track driving, thick edge in the air uncontrolled to third man for 1 run, fielded by Ali.
Pakistan vs Afghanistan
48.3
Shaheen Afridi to Rahmat Shah. Length ball, outside off stump on the front foot driving, to deep point for 1 run, fielded by Shafique.
Pakistan vs Afghanistan
48.2
Shaheen Afridi to Rahmat Shah. Length ball, outside off stump on the front foot defending, back to bowler for no runs.
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