25 overs Afghanistan 112 for 5 (Nabi 18*, Shenwari 1*, Afridi 4-27) v Pakistan
Karim Sadiq and Mohammad Shahzad briefly strode the thin line separating audacity from foolhardiness, as Afghanistan produced 25 overs of highly entertaining cricket in Sharjah.
Their top order paraded the pure joy that accompanies their rough-cut methods, swinging merrily against Pakistan's well-rounded attack, heedless of the losses they incurred along the way. Their approach left bowlers of the calibre of Umar Gul and Saeed Ajmal clueless, before the spinner with most ODI wickets among active players, Shahid Afridi, reined them in.
Years from now, irrespective of the result of the game, one image from Friday afternoon will endure. Ajmal, Man of the Series from the Test series against England, was forced into an early spell after the new-ball bowlers were battered. The portly Mohammad Shahzad was on strike. To the third ball, he calmly reversed his stance and heaved a flighted offbreak a good 20 yards into the stands behind square leg. It was just one shot, but it came against the bowler who had looped circles around England's celebrated top order through six innings of tortuous Test batting. It was a statement as telling as any - Misbah-ul-Haq smiled wryly into the distance as the ball disappeared. Afghanistan didn't care for reputations.
The fun began early on the flat Sharjah track, when Gul strayed into Karim 'Kabul ka Sehwag' Sadiq's pads in the first over. Sadiq thumped the flick with a violence that was a sign of things to come. He would later prance out to Wahab Riaz and butcher a length ball over mid-off. Noor Ali Zadran perished at the other end, but Sadiq didn't seem to notice - he waited in the crease and launched a Gul slower ball for his first six down the ground. Gul wisely shelved the slower ball after that.
Shahzad warmed up by flicking, carving and lofting Riaz for successive fours before producing that six against Ajmal. If there ever was a shot that gave the crowd its money's worth, this was it.
It took Pakistan a moment of athletic brilliance to end Shahzad's savagery. He opened up the off side and looked to cream Afridi's second ball over point, but Asad Shafiq leapt up and snatched it with one hand when he was at full stretch. The catch was so extraordinary, that even Afridi deigned to leave the spotlight on the fielder, as he refrained from his characteristic X-man celebrations.
Afridi's variations of spin and pace - one of his balls clocked 131 kph - gradually unravelled Afghanistan's innings. Nawroz Mangal missed a slog to lose his stumps, before Sadiq - who had carted Mohammad Hafeez for another towering six in the previous over - edged a wide Afridi delivery into Umar Akmal's gloves. The run-rate had fallen considerably by the time Afridi fizzed a googly in to catch the debutant Gulbodin Naib plumb. Despite the damage, Mohammad Nabi teed off over long-on for the fourth six of the innings, suggesting that Afghanistan weren't going to let minor inconveniences such as wickets to come in the way of fun.
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