Cricket

'Give scriptwriters a raise'- Twitter dumbfounded as Pakistan defeat Afghanistan in the 'best match of the Asia Cup 2022'

Pakistan and Afghanistan played a nail biter in the Asia Cup 2022 with the Men in Green coming victorious at the end of the sensational match.

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Daniel S
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Pakistan vs Afghanistan

Pakistan vs Afghanistan (Image source: Twitter)

Having defeated India in their first match of the Super Four, Pakistan went against Afghanistan to book a berth for the final. Going with the norm, Pakistan won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Coming onto bat first, the Afghanistan team got off to a decent start with the first wicket adding 36 runs on the board. In form batter, Rahmanullah Gurbaz was the first to depart as he was bowled by a sensational delivery from Haris Rauf. Haratullah Zazai (21) and Ibrahim Zadran (35) steadied Afghanistan's innings. As soon as Zazai departed, Afghanistan batters found it tough to stay at the pitch and tackle Pakistan's bowling attack.

Karim Janat (10) and Najibullah Zadran (10) were the next to depart on low individual scores. All came down to captain Mohammad Nabi but the all-rounder left his team in limbo after getting out on a duck. Rashid Khan (18) came down with a flurry of shots and added important runs to Afghanistan's total. In the end, they were able to put 129/6 on the board.

Haris Rauf led Pakistan's attack with two wickets while Naseem Shah, Mohammad Hasnain, Mohammad Nawaz and Shadab Khan took one wicket each.

Coming on to chase what looked like a small total the Men in Green would have hoped for an easy chase, it however was anything but. Captain Babar Azam continued his bad patch of form as he was dismissed on a duck on the second ball of the inning. Mohammad Rizwan, the top scorer of the Asia Cup 2022 looked assured at the crease but wickets continued to fall from the other end. Afghanistan's incredible vigour meant that they did not let the game get away from them easily.

Pakistan saw a complete collapse as they went from 87/3 to 118/9. The final over moved into Afghanistan's favour as Pakistan needed 11 in six balls with number 10 and 11 batters on the crease. As Afghanistan's best bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi took to his run-up, many believed it to go their way. But the cricketing gods has something else in their mind. Pace bowler Naseem Shah hit back-to-back sixes in the first two balls to take his team across the finishing line bringing us what was the best match of the Asia Cup so far.

Let's look at how Twitter reacted to this topsy-turvy game of cricket.

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