LEEDS: It was nail-biting thriller but marred by heated clashes between fans of both the teams, Pakistan and Afghanistan, who invaded the ground and threw bottles at each other at the end of the game.
SCORECARD | WORLD CUP SCHEDULE | POINTS TABLELike a cat with nine lives, Pakistan survived to fight another day - for a semifinal berth - as they scraped past a spirited Afghanistan by three wickets at Headingley here on Saturday.
Pakistan's story of comebacks, so uncannily similar to their triumphant campaign in 1992, thus continues in the 2019 World Cup. Chasing 228 on a turning wicket, they looked headed towards an upset when skipper Sarfaraz Ahmed was run out while going for a needless second run, and the team slipped to 156 for six in 39 overs.
However, they suddenly found a hero in all-rounder
Imad Wasim, who cracked a match-winning 49 not out (54b, 5x4) to take them to a win in the final over. Pakistan needed six off the final six balls, and then two off the last three, when the left-hander smashed the winning boundary off Afghanistan skipper
Gulbadin Naib to pull off an amazing win.
Wasim guided Pakistan with an unbeaten 49
Wasim added 50 in 46 balls for the seventh wicket with
Shadab Khan, before
Wahab Riaz overcame a fractured finger on his right hand to hit a six and a four to swing the game Pakistan's way in a tight finish.
The thrilling win, their fourth in eight games, allowed Pakistan to overtake England, who would now under even more pressure to beat India at Birmingham on Sunday, to get to the fourth position on the table. With just the one league clash, against Bangladesh at Lord's on July 5 left for them to play, Pakistan are now in with a huge shout of making it to the World Cup semifinals for the first time since 2011.
Between Pakistan, Bangladesh and England, there seems to be a three-way race for the semis that looks like going down to the wire. Afghanistan will walk away from Headingley with their heads high. They have now lost eight games in succession, and were involved in some serious controversies.
Defending just 227 on a wicket which aided turn, they battled hard through their ace spinners Mohamamd Nabi (2-23 in 10 overs), Mujeeb Ur Rahman (2-34 in 10 overs) and Rashid Khan (1-50 in 10 overs). The biggest disappointment for them was their skipper Naib, who conceded 93 in 9.4 overs without taking a wicket. In the 46th over, he gave away 18 runs at a time when Pakistan needed 46 off five overs. It was poor captaincy, and the turning point of the game.
True to their mercurial, extremely unpredictable nature, Pakistan were the first team to beat New Zealand, but then struggled to beat an Afghanistan team which was languishing at the bottom in what was a do-or-die game for them.
This was the second thriller of this World Cup at Headingley. On June 21, in another low scoring game, Sri Lanka had successfully defended 232 at this same venue, beating England by 20 runs.