Shahid Afridi’s five-for rocks Afghanistan in one-off ODI
Afghanistan opener Karim Sadiq gave a promising start to Afghanistan innings as he scored 40 runs before being dismissed by Shahid Afridi © AFP
By CricketCountry Staff
Dubai: Feb 10, 2012
Pakistani all-rounder Shahid Afridi’s five-for restricted the Afghanistan to a score of 195 runs in the one-off One-Day International (ODI) match at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Earlier, after winning the toss, Afghanistan who decided to bat first made a promising start. Opener Karim Sadiq gave a promising start to Afghanistan innings as he scored 40 runs before being dismissed by Afridi.
The Pakistani all-rounder was Afghanistan’s nemesis in the match as he scaled five wickets conceding 36 runs on Friday.
While Pakistan will look at it as a chance to get their combination right for the future series, Afghanistan will certainly want to prove point to the ICC who recently expressed their desire to exclude Associate nations from World Cups after 2015.
This Pakistan outfit seems to have become the talk of the town after a quite remarkable 12 months that saw them winning 21 out of the 26 ODIs that they played. In this period Pakistan also had a fabulous run in the 2011 World Cup as they went as far as the semi final. One would be living in a fool’s paradise if they thought that Pakistan was anything but the favourites to win this one off ODI against the Afghans.
Brief Score: Afghanistan 195 all-out in 48.3 overs (Karim Sadiq 40, Mohammad Nabi 37, Samiullah Shenwari 32; Shahid Afridi 5 for 36, Umar Gul 2 for 30) vs Pakistan