Pak-Afghan series, What Went Wrong?

 

Recent Pak-Afghan series is the highlight of the news today because of the worst defeat that Pakistan had to face in both matches which made it possible for the Afghanis to gift themselves this series as they have got the lead by 2-1 already. The matches took place in Sharjah on 24 march, and 26 march and the final match is on 27 march but that match is more or less useless because the Afghani team has already got the lead in the series. The series is hosted by United Arab Emirates and it is backed by some hefty investors like B-Love network, Kam Air, and Super Cola etc. This tour is important for Pakistan as well as Afghanistan as it is a bilateral international series which is the prominent part of the Future Tour programs (FTPs). Future Tour programs is the program of International Cricket Council (ICC) in 2009.

 This series has got another very important aspect for the Pakistani Team as a lot of young players are having their debut appearance in the international cricket and it is a very important chance for the new talent to be seen and acknowledged. This includes some stars of the Pakistan Super League who showed some outstanding performances in PSL which were worthy of them being selected in this international team. However, we are witnessing an intense struggle as Pakistani team faces bad luck and lost the first two matches which is sadly leading to the failure to win this series.

In the first T20 match which was held on Friday Afghanistan beat Pakistan by six wickets. One major reason of this defeat is that this time Pakistan is playing without their experienced players including, captain Baber Azam, Muhammad Rizwan, Shaheen Afridi and Haris rauf. In first T20, Pakistan won the toss and elected to Bat first. Pakistan started with the T20 debuts that is Saim Ayub, Tayyab tahir, Ihsanullah and Zaman khan. But the Openers of Pakistan could not do well in the power play and mostly fell to soft dismissals. The openers Muhammad haris and saim ayub couldn’t read the low bounce and fell within power play while attempting big shots. After then the Abdullah shafique was been taken by Azmatullah omarzai on duck and Tayyab tahir lobbed a return catch to Rashid Khan. Then Azam was also out on his very first ball thus, Pakistan lost its 5 wickets in the first eighth over. After then a partnership was seen between Imad wasim and Shadab Khan which took Pakistan to a total of 93. Even after this total, the duo could not save Pakistan from the defeat as in the second half, the afghani bowlers attacked aggressively. Among these amazing bowlers, mujeeb ur rehman and Fazal haq farooqi got 2-2wickets each. In reply, Afghanistan lost its 4 wickets in ten overs and the middle order struggled hard yet they secured a tremendous victory with more than one over spare.

In the second T20 match, Pakistan won the Toss again and elected to Bat first. But the same mistake was repeated and the opener’s saim ayub and Abdullah shafique were gone on duck hence, Pakistan lost its 2 wickets in the very first over of the inning. After that Mohammad haris and tayyab tahir made some runs but unfortunately lost their wickets in power play. Afterward, imad wasim came and play an incredible knock of 64 (not out) which played a very crucial role in the match. Shahdab and imad also had a partnership of 67 runs which was vital in setting a competitive target of 130 with the loss of 6 wickets. Pakistani bowlers defended the score very well in the Afghani innings of the second match like the young bowler’s zaman khan and Ihsanullah who were on their debut took 1-1 wickets. The bowlers tried hard and attack the Afghani batsman and tried their best to pull the match toward the Pakistan side. The last two overs were intense and full of thrill but unfortunately the Afghani batsman Nabi and Najibullah hit the boundaries and secure a tremendous win against Pakistan with the only one ball left.

The heart throbbing battle ended up on the last ball and Zaman Khan was too invested into the battle however, the game was out of his hands and only a miracle could have saved Pakistan, which did not happen and Pakistan had to face another consecutive defeat. Another prominent news of this series is that this is the first time ever in the history of international cricket that Afghanistan has beaten up Pakistan that too with points 2-1. This gave Afghani team, the soaring 2 points out of 3, bagging the victory of series with the final match left to be played on 27 march.