Asia Cup 2022: Pakistan steal victory out of Afghanistan's mouth, Team India crash out of tournament

Chasing a target of 130 sounded easy in a 20 over game, however, Afghanistan did put on a strong show as they took nine crucial wickets, but fell short as Pakistan beat their opponenet by a wicket. With this victory, Pakistan has qualified for the final of the Asia Cup 2022 and this has also led to Team India crashing out of the tournament.

The Men in Green will take on Sri Lanka in the final on Sunday as the host nation also have two victories to their name.

The Afghan side were ruling most part of the game, however, with 11 needed off the final over, tail-ender Naseem Shah hit two consecutive sixes to break Afghanistan hearts.

Afghan bowlers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Fareed Ahmad Malik picked up three wickets each while Rashid Khan got two wickets to his name.

For Pakistan, leaving Shadab Khan (36) and Iftikhar Ahmed (30) and Mohammad Rizwan (20), no one else got much runs on the board.

Skipper Babar Azam's dry spell continued as he was dismissed for a duck while Fakhar Zaman was run out for five runs.

Earlier, Pakistan's Haris Rauf had bowled an excellent spell of 2 for 26 which restricted Afghanistan to 129 for six.

Afghanistan had failed to capitalise on the strong start which was given to them by openers Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz. 

For Pakistan, apart from Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shadab Khan, Mohammad Hasnain and Mohammad Nawaz all bagged a wickets each. For Afghanistan, Ibrahim Zadran went on to play a vital 35-run cameo while Zazai also scored 21.