Rashid, Afghanistan captain: Great honour and pleasure to lead this wonderful team. Great effort with the ball, and then we took it deep and finished it off. This wicket is always a 150-160 wicket. But Pakistan-Afghanistan game is pressure game and that makes it 125-130. 130 was a good total, but we tried our best to take it deep and finish it. Strategy was to go there and make sure you take responsibility. Take it deep and try to finish it. We have players to finish it like Nabi and Najib. Main thing was to have wickets in hand.
Shadab, Pakistan captain: It was a good score. We were struggling again. If you look at stats, if you lose 3 wickets in powerplay, you lose 70 percent of the games. I think there’s nervousness – they’re playing for the first time for Pakistan (the new batters). We have to back them. Sometimes you don’t perform but attitude matters. That’s more important for me. They have talent. They will be great cricketers. Will play for pride tomorrow.
Farooqi, Player of the Match: Would like to congratulate everyone back home. Special moment for us. I tried to use the new ball. If it’s swinging, I look to attack and take wickets. Pakistan is a very strong team. It’s always a proud moment to win a match and win a series.
23:31 Local Time, 19:31 GMT, 01:01 IST: Zaman is crestfallen after bowling a brilliant over. He rolls onto the turf in despair. And on the other hand there’s Najibullah who looks to the heavens and roars in delight. Two days ago Afghanistan beat Pakistan for the first time ever in any format, and now they’ve taken the series with a game to spare. It didn’t come easy though. The chase was a struggle on another sluggish pitch in Sharjah. There was a partnership of 56 for the second wicket between Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran but it came off 69 balls, and the required rate climbed right up. To make things worse, both of them departed when things got tight. But Mohammad Nabi and Najibullah Zadran, who’ve done it so many times over the years, did it once again. The game turned decisively in Afghanistan’s favour as Naseem went for 17 in the penultimate over, leaving just 5 to get in the final one. And as well as Zaman bowled, he couldn’t deny Afghanistan their piece of history.
19.5Zaman Khan to Najibullah, FOUR, it flies off the edge towards third man, the fielder charges in but he can’t get there! He can’t stop the boundary either and it’s all over!
Afghanistan clinch the series 2-0 with a game to spare! Incredible scenes at Sharjah! Full ball outside off, Najibullah swings hard, gets a thick edge and the fielder decides to go for the catch rather than hanging back. And he doesn’t get to it!
