On Saturday, Pakistan won the coin toss and chose to start batting in the last one-day international (ODI) match against Afghanistan. The game was played in Colombo, Sri Lanka.
Pakistan has already won two games in the series. They really want to win again today to make it three out of three. If they win today, they can become number one in the International Cricket Council (ICC) ODI ranking, going ahead of Australia.
Before today’s match, the captain of Pakistan’s team, Babar Azam, said that the first 10 overs of the game would be hard.
He also mentioned that they want to put a lot of pressure on the Afghan team by aiming for a high score. They made four changes to the team that’s playing today. Saud Shakeel, Mohammad Nawaz, Faheem Ashraf, and Mohammad Wasim Jr are playing instead of Usama Mir, Iftikhar Ahmed, Naseem Shah, and Haris Rauf.
On the other side, Afghanistan had a problem because player Azmatullah Umarzai got hurt and can’t play in the third match.
So, they brought in Gulbadin Naib to replace Azmatullah, as announced by the Afghanistan Cricket Board.
In the last match, both teams had a really tough fight. But Pakistan managed to win by just one wicket.
Even though it seemed like Pakistan might lose at one point, they kept playing really well. Naseem Shah, who helped Pakistan win against the same team in the Asia Cup 2022, once again played a big role in Pakistan’s exciting win in the last over. They needed 11 runs from 6 balls, and Naseem Shah’s good performance made sure Pakistan got those runs and won the match.
Pakistan Playing XI:
- Fakhar Zaman
- Imam-ul-Haq
- Babar Azam (captain)
- Salman Ali Agha
- Saud Shakeel
- Mohammad Rizwan
- Shadab Khan (vice-captain)
- Mohammad Nawaz
- Faheem Ashraf
- Mohammad Wasim Jnr
- Shaheen Afridi
Afghanistan Playing XI:
- Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk)
- Ibrahim Zadran
- Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain)
- Gulbadin Naib
- Riaz Hassan
- Shahidullah Kamal
- Mohammad Nabi
- Fareed Ahmad Malik
- Rashid Khan
- Mujeeb Ur Rahman
- Fazalhaq Farooqi
