Twitter Reactions: Mohammad Nabi dazzles all-round to defy Babar Azam's century

The official warm-up games for the World Cup 2019 kicked off with the match between Pakistan and Afghanistan. In this clash of the Asian teams, Pakistan was expected to assert dominance after the recent upset against England. However, Sarfaraz Ahmed and his men struggled yet again in this game. The all-round heroics from Mohammad Nabi, supported by a good knock from Hashmatullah Shahidi proved to be a nightmare for the opposition.

Earlier, the Afghanistan team was brilliant with the ball despite being sloppy with the ball. Even though the game went down right till the end, Gulbadin Naib‘s team was always under control. Pakistan’s batting innings was dominated by Babar Azam who scored a good century. Except for the contributions from Shoaib Malik and Imam-ul-Haq, there isn’t much to talk about the batting display.

Babar Azam guides Pakistan to a respectable total

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. But they lost wickets in quick successions after getting to a good start. From 63/1, they were brought down to 100/4. Imam scored 32 runs while Fakhar Zaman got out for just 19. Haris Sohail and Mohammad Hafeez scored 1 and 12 runs respectively. While Afghanistan could have applied pressure by bowling their best bowlers at this stage, they chose not to and Babar Azam, Shoaib Malik made the most of it.

The duo added 103 runs together before Malik perished for 44. Azam, though, played extremely cautious cricket and ensured that he reached the triple figures. However, he failed to accelerate at the death and got out after scoring 112 runs leaving his team in shambles. There wasn’t much left in the lower-order of Pakistan. The Afghanistan bowlers were always on the top and kept pegging in with regular wickets as they bundled the opposition out for 262 in 47.5 overs.

Hashmatullah Shahidi

Afghanistan, despite losing Mohammad Shahzad who retired hurt for 23 runs, got off to a flyer. Hazratullah Zazai took the attack to Shaheen Afridi and hit him for five boundaries in one over. The left-hander got out after scoring 49 runs from 28 balls and it was a turbulent ride for his team ever since he got out. Rahmat Shah took 49 balls to score 32 runs. After scoring 22 runs, Samiullah Shenwari also lost his wicket to Imad Wasim. From 244/4, the team lost its course in the chase and was brought down to 249/7 in quick time.

The equation quickly changed and 14 runs were required off the last two overs. It was Afghanistan who were under pressure at this stage. But Shahidi hit a boundary in the 49th over to bring the equation down to 4 off 6. Rashid Khan and Hashmatullah Shahidi maintained their calm and finished the chase with two balls to spare. The latter remained unbeaten on 74 as Afghanistan won the match by 3 wickets.

Twitterati rose up in joy as Afghanistan defeated Pakistan. The fans were all praise for Mohammad Nabi and Hashmatullah Shahidi for their efforts. At the same time, they also felt bad for Babar Azam and Wahab Riaz who tried their level best to help their team win the game.

Here is how Twitterati reacted to Afghanistan’s win over Pakistan: