ICC World Cup 2019: Match 36, Pakistan vs Afghanistan – An Imad special, a fifty-less game and more stats

Afghanistan’s wait to bag first points in the World Cup 2019 continues as they went down to Pakistan in a last over thriller. The Afghans finished with 227/9 in their 50 overs as the majority of their line-up chipped in with runs despite not converting them. Babar Azam and Imam-ul-Haq seemed to have eased the chase with a 72-run stand before Afghanistan bowlers broke through regularly.

The equation came down to 46 from last five overs and a gamble by Gulbadin Naib of bowling himself didn’t pay off. Imad Wasim scored an unbeaten 54-ball 49 to take his team home with three wickets and three balls to spare.

All the statistical highlights from Pakistan’s close victory over Afghanistan in Leeds:

A game without fifties:

1 – The 228-run chase by Pakistan is their first ever 200+ successful chase in ODI cricket without an individual fifty. The previous highest such chase for Pakistan was 197 against India in the 1987 Indore ODI. In overall, only three teams chased higher targets than Pakistan without an individual half-century in ODI format.

429 – The 429 runs aggregated by batsmen of both the teams in this game are the second most in an ODI without an individual fifty. The 2011 World Cup game between England and Windies at the Chepauk saw a total of 435 runs scored by the players of both the teams without recording an individual half-century.

Starting and finishing in the same game:

2 – Imad Wasim is only the 2nd spin bowler to have bowled the first over of an ODI and end up scoring the winning runs during the same game. Zimbabwe’s Sikandar Raza was the first to do so when he hit a six to seal an ODI series win against Sri Lanka in 2017.

1 – Imad also became the first Pakistan player to bowl the first over of a World Cup game and end up scoring the winning runs in the same match. He is overall the 8th player to do so after Andy Roberts (1975), Kapil Dev (1987), C Ramanayake (1992), Shaun Pollock (1996), John Mooney (2015), Shapoor Zadran (2015) and Tim Southee (2015).

Shaheen bags a new record:

19y 84d – At the age of 19 years and 84 days, Shaheen Shah Afridi became the first teenager to claim a 4-wicket haul in the history of World Cup. Previously, the youngest player to claim a 4-fer in the CWC was John Blain of Scotland at the age of 20 years and 140 days against Bangladesh in the 1999 edition.

Stats: Shaheen Shah Afridi becomes the youngest to take 4-wicket haul in World Cup

A rare win for Pakistan:

2 – Only the 2nd time Pakistan won a World Cup game after losing their first wicket without a run on the board. Fakhar Zaman was trapped in front of the very 2nd ball of the chase by Mujeeb ur Rahman. Back in 1992, Aamer Sohail was at the receiving end in the game against New Zealand in Christchurch.