Pakistan men, led by spinner Mohammad Nawaz’s hat-trick, bamboozled Afghanistan to win by a huge margin of 75 runs in the final of the Twenty20 International tri-series in Sharjah on Sunday.
Player of the match Nawaz became the third Pakistani bowler to take a hat-trick in T20Is for the Green Shirts and ended up with figures of 5-19 as the Afghan batters had no response to his wily left-arm spin — getting bowled out for a paltry 66.
He also contributed with the bat in Pakistan’s first innings by hitting two sixes and scoring 25 of 21 deliveries.
Earlier, Afghanistan men’s spinners restricted Pakistan to 141-8 after skipper Salman Ali Agha had elected to bat first after winning the toss, and the Green Shirts had one change since their last encounter against Afghanistan on Tuesday, with spinner Abrar Ahmed playing in place of pacer Haris Rauf.
Spinners Abrar and Sufyan Moqim picked up two wickets each as the Pakistani spinners outbowled their Afghan counterparts to win the final by 75 runs at the packed Sharjah Cricket Stadium.
In the first innings, Pakistan suffered an early blow when they lost opener Sahebzada Farhan to an inswinger by Fazalhaq Farooqi that made a mess of his stumps.
Fazalhaq, along with left-arm leg-spinner Noor Ahmad, continued their good form with the ball against the Green Shirts — grabbing two wickets each and supporting skipper Rashid Khan, who ended up with three wickets.
Fakhar Zaman hit the first maximum of the match off the bowling of Muhammad Nabi when he danced down the wicket and deposited the ball in the stands.
Pakistan were 41-1 at the end of the powerplay with the Afghan bowlers keeping scoring in check.
Opener Saim Ayub was the next wicket down for the Green Shirts as he prodded at a length delivery by spinner Noor Ahmed — resulting in a regulation catch for Afghan skipper Rashid Khan at covers.
Fakhar did not last long after that, getting out leg before wicket to a straighter delivery by Rashid in the very next over.
At the halfway mark of the innings, the Green Team managed 61-3 as the Afghan spinners continued to cause trouble.
Batter Hasan Nawaz tried to up the momentum but got out miscuing an aerial shot off Rashid — getting dismissed trying one shot too many after hitting a six earlier in the over.
Mohammad Haris was the next to go, as his troubles against spin continued in the series. Noor beat him all ends up as he attempted an aerial shot on a flighted delivery.
The innings meandered along till Mohammad Nawaz hit a six off newcomer AM Ghazanfar in the 15th over to regain some momentum.
Skipper Salman hit two sixes off Rashid in the 17th over before top-edging one to short third man — getting dismissed for 24 off 27 balls.
Faheem Ashraf and Nawaz hit a couple of boundaries before getting dismissed as the Pakistani innings ended at 141-8 at the end of 20 overs.
Afghanistan’s reply never got going after losing regular wickets from the very first over of the innings and got the wind knocked out of their sails when Nawaz took a hat-trick by dismissing key batters in the 6th and 8th overs.
Pakistan had secured their spot in the T20 tri-series final by a second 31-run win over the United Arab Emirates, while Afghanistan beat the UAE in a close finish by 4 runs on Friday.
In the tournament that was played as a warm-up ahead of the Asia Cup — which starts on September 9 — both teams faced each other twice in the lead-up to the final, with both wiining one encounter each.
Pakistan beat Afghanistan comprehensively by 39 runs in the tri-series opener, while Afghanistan won the last encounter on Wednesday by 18 runs.
Teams:
Pakistan: Sahibzada Farhan, Saim Ayub, Fakhar Zaman, Salman Ali Agha (captain), Hasan Nawaz, Muhammad Haris (wicket-keeper), Faheem Ashraf, Shaheen Afridi, Sufyan Moqim, Abrar Ahmed and Muhammad Nawaz.
Afghanistan: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran, Sediqullah Atal, Darwish Rasooli, Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan (c), Mohammad Nabi, AM Ghazanfar, Noor Ahmad and Fazalhaq Farooqi.
