Islamabad : Pathetic . It was a really pathetic cricket by Salman Agha XI against Rashid Khan XI of Afghanistan .
All Pakistani batters displayed irresponsible behaviour and provided Afghanistan a good opportunity to beat Pakistan. Afghanistan has made 169 while batting first in allotted 20 overs in fourth match of UAE Tri-Series 2025, being played in the United Arab Emirates (UAE).
With Tuesday’s win by 18 runs against Pakistan, Afghanistan has a leading position in the series. Earlier , Pakistan had defeated Afghanistan in the second match . It also defeated UAE by 39 runs and had green shirts won today’s match it had a good chance to win the series.
In Tuesday’s match , the entire Afghan side played like a team and despite a low target of 170 runs it managed to bag win against Pakistan . The credit of Tuesday ‘s win goes to Afghan team ,but more than that Pakistani batters throw away the match to Afghan side by playing senseless cricket .
With early dismissal , Saim Ayub set a foundation for Pakistani side to happily lose the match to Afghanistan . He got out by playing an out of reach ball. He scored only one run. Other batters like Hasan Nawaz , Mohammad Haris did their best to go back to the pavilion without contributing any score to Pakistan’s total . Shaheen Shah Afridi got out at zero in a bid to hit a six. Fakhar Zaman did some effort , but got out when his individual score was 25. He faced 18 balls. It was a pair of Haris Rauf and Mustaqeem who added valuable score to close the gap of Pakistan’s defeat. Haris Rauf played a glorious inning of 34 . He hit sixes to Rashid Khan and other Afghan bowlers when there was no other wicket left to play for Pakistan. The last players completed 20- over game and squeezed Pakistan ‘s defeat in this match to 18 runs.
Tuesday’s loss to Afghanistan in UAE Tri-Series 2025 has created a big question mark on Pakistan team’s worth and left a question in Pakistan’s cricket fans as if this Pakistani team is worth playing India in Asia Cup just after one week ?
*