Another upset happened in the 22nd match of the ongoing ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 where Afghanistan comfortably beat Pakistan at MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai on October 23.

Pakistan won the toss and opted to bat first. However, they could only manage 282 runs in 50 overs with Babar Azam top-scoring 74. The talented bowler Noor Ahmad picked up 3/49. While chasing, Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) and Ibrahim Zadran (87) added a steady 130 runs for the opening wicket. Pakistan bowlers failed miserably as they could only claim two wickets. Afghanistan won by 8 wickets and 1 over to spare.

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Who said what after the match?

Hashmatullah Shahidi: This win tastes nice. The way we chased was very professional. Looking forward for the other games. The way we chased today, we’ll do it again. We have been playing quality cricket, the belief was there when we played the Asia Cup as well. First was England, today Pakistan, looking forward to the other games. We’ll try to play positive cricket and do a lot for out country. The spin bowling deprogramming was very good. Noor showed his talent. Gurbaz and Ibrahim gave the momentum and confidence. The game was in our hand from the beginning till the end.

Babar Azam: This hurts us. We had a good total. In the bowling, we aren’t up to the mark because we are not taking wickets in the middle overs. In the World Cup, if you are not good in even one department, then you’ll lose the match. In the field, we didn’t stop boundaries and gave away runs, that cost us. Bowling – we started well, in the middle overs, we needed wickets but we couldn’t take any wickets. All credit to Afghanistan the way they played in all three departments. That’s why they won. We are not playing good cricket in bowling and fielding. We’ll try our best in the next match. We didn’t hit the lengths in the middle overs, especially our spinners. We couldn’t put pressure on the batters.

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Mohammad Nabi: Big moment for the whole team, the whole of Afghanistan. We’ve been waiting for 10-12 years for such a moment and to win one game in the big event against Pakistan. Last 3 months we worked very hard, this is a lovely moment today. We beat England and now Pakistan, everyone is in a good mood. We can not only defend, but also chase well now. This win is the favorite, we have played them 7-8 games against them and in the last moment we have always lost. The way Ibrahim and Gurbaz started, that gave us the momentum. We didn’t lose back to back wickets till the end.

We thought the surface would be like the NZ game, but it was much easier. I think our bowlers did very well to restrict them to that kind of total. The plan was to play Noor in this game, and he bowled brilliantly, in the right areas. This win is a long time coming, we played for the first time in 2012, then Asia Cup and 2019 World Cup. Lots of close games against Pakistan. We shouldn’t have lost the first game against Bangladesh, but now we’re halfway gone and we have 4 points on the table. Now we will go hard against Sri Lanka. We loved the support we received today, hopefully we’ll get that support in Pune as well.

Ibrahim Zadran, Player of the Match said: I wanted to go out there with a positive mind and positive intent, and I did it. We (Gurbaz and himself) have played a lot of cricket with each other, we have good communication while running between the wickets as we have been playing together since under-16 days. The way Gurbaz supported me (in that opening partnership) – that helped me and we got the momentum in our favour. I am feeling great for myself and my country.