ISLAMABAD - Pakistan A trounced Afghanistan by five wickets in the first One Day International here at Diamond Club cricket ground on Wednesday.
The green shirts displayed team effort in all the three departments: bowling, fielding and batting to overcome the visitors.
A couple of responsible innings, Sharjeel Khan 47 and Umer Amin 29, guided the hosts to achieve 153 runs target and take 1-0 in the three-match tie. Top scorer, Sharjeel faced 49 balls during his sparkling innings and smashed eight fours and a big six while Umer played 61 delivers for his 29.
Wicketkeeper batsman Sarfaraz Ahmed (21) and Naveed Yasin (18) remained unbeaten and both finished the game in the penultimate deliver of 40th over.
Sarfarz faced 25 balls and hit one four and a six. Afghan bowlers gave 15 extras including 11 wide and 4 no balls.
Usman Salauddin (14), Shan Masood (5) and Sohail Tanvir (5) were other contributor for Pakistan A team. For Afghanistan, Dawlat Zadran grabbed three wickets by conceding 49 runs in nine overs. Shapoor, who claimed one wicket, was the other bowler of Afghan team.
Earlier, Afghanistan skipper Nowroz Mangal decided to bat first after winning the coin’s battle and the visitors could post only 152 runs on the scoreboard. Mohammad Nabi scored 72 runs off 75 balls with the help of seven boundaries and three huge sixes. None of his other teammates could make any significant impact.
At one stage, Afghanistan were 94 for 8 in the 28th over. But Mohammad Nabi showed his class and hit some brilliant strokes contributing a major share of the 56 runs 9th wicket partnership along with Shapoor Zadran, who contributed just four runs. Captain Nowroz contributed 33 runs.
Right arm pacer Mohammad Talha claimed three wickets conceding just 29 runs in 7.3 overs. Sohail Tanvir and Sadaf Hussain shared two wickets each by giving 33 and 25 runs in nine and six overs respectively.
Zulfiqar Babar and Yasir Shah chipped in one wicket each to restrict the visitor to low total. Afghan batsman Mohammad Nabi was declared man of the match on his 72 runs innings.
