Pakistan’s pacer Haris Rauf led a fiery assault on Afghanistan with a career-best five-wicket haul to give his team a thumping 142-run victory in the first one-day international in Sri Lanka’s Hambantota on Tuesday.
Rauf’s shattering 5-18 in 6.2 overs forced Afghanistan to their second-lowest ODI totals of 59 in a staggering 19.2 overs after Pakistan were bowled out for 201 in 47.1 overs.
The victory gives Pakistan a 1-0 lead in the three-match series – the first bilateral between the two nations – with the remaining matches in Colombo on Thursday and Saturday.
Afghanistan’s lowest in all ODIs is 58 against Zimbabwe in Sharjah in 2016.
After the match, Pakistan’s skipper Babar Azam said they were looking for a score of around 250 but they were not up to the mark with the bat. He said however it was still a good total.
Afghanistan’s captain Hashmatullah Shahidi said it was a chaseable score but Pakistan bowled really well. He also said their shot-selection wasn’t good which allowed the opposition to get in the game. Says he was happy with the bowling performance but that they will have to be smart with the bat in the next game.
Haris Rauf was named Player of the Match and said he was happy with the win.
The next game takes place on Thursday in Colombo.
PAKISTAN: Babar Azam (captain), Shadab Khan, Mohammad Rizwan, Fakhar Zaman, Imam-ul-Haq, Agha Salman, Iftikhar Ahmed, Usama Mir, Haris Rauf, Naseem Shah, Shaheen Shah Afridi
AFGHANISTAN: Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Ikram Alikhil, Ibrahim Zadran, Rahmat Shah, Mohammad Nabi, Azmatullah Omarzai, Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazal Haq Farooqi, Abdul Rahman
