209/10 (48.4)
CR : 4.29
268/8 (50.0)
CR : 5.36
Pakistan won by 59 runs 🏆
Player of the Match
Mohammad Rizwan
67(79)
Stylish Player of the Match: Babar Azam
Master Blaster of the Match: Mujeeb Ur Rahman
Player of the Match: Mohammad Rizwan
Mohammad Rizwan: "Thank you. Absolutely. It was a tough wicket. We had a meeting earlier in the morning that around 240 would be a par score. The wicket was very difficult to bat on. We stuck to our basics and we played the way we do normally. After losing the openers, we assessed the pitch and batted accordingly.
We had taken a good inputs from Imam-ul-Haq, who has been playing here since LPL. He has a great knowledge of how the pitch exactly plays here.
It's really difficult to apply yourself. Sometimes you get to play against the new ball, sometimes it grips and turns and at some stages, you need to accelerate."
We had taken a good inputs from Imam-ul-Haq, who has been playing here since LPL. He has a great knowledge of how the pitch exactly plays here.
It's really difficult to apply yourself. Sometimes you get to play against the new ball, sometimes it grips and turns and at some stages, you need to accelerate."
Player of the Series: Imam-ul-Haq
Imam-ul-Haq: "Thank you. It is about the process. Tough conditions to bat on. We need to assess the situation and bat so on. In these tracks, it becomes difficult to bat in the first 30-35 overs. They have a quality spin attack. Sometimes you need to run hard, especially in Hambantota where it had longer boundaries.
The management planned that and it worked. I have listened to my chachu (uncle) as well. He always says that the usage of feet becomes very important while playing the spinners. You should move the back leg against the spinners and it worked very well for me. I am really happy at the moment.
My fielding hah! I will first thank my management and the fielding staff. We have been working hard. It is an important phase in the game and we are really concentrating on it. Fielding well gives me confidence and will try to improve moving forward."
The management planned that and it worked. I have listened to my chachu (uncle) as well. He always says that the usage of feet becomes very important while playing the spinners. You should move the back leg against the spinners and it worked very well for me. I am really happy at the moment.
My fielding hah! I will first thank my management and the fielding staff. We have been working hard. It is an important phase in the game and we are really concentrating on it. Fielding well gives me confidence and will try to improve moving forward."
Hashmatullah Shahidi (Afghanistan Captain): "Ahh... The pitch was a bit different today than it was in the previous one. We made the same mistakes in the batting. We will definitely work on it.
There are a lot to learn from this series. We know what is coming our way in the Asia Cup and World Cup. As I said, our batting has been poor and at some part, our fielding was poor as well.
See, the bowling, especially our spin-bowling is very good. I am really happy with their performance. Our opening batters, especially Gurbaz have been brilliant and doing well. The middle-order needs to take responsibility and needs to step up. We will work on that part. A few injuries for us moving into the series and we missed some players there."
There are a lot to learn from this series. We know what is coming our way in the Asia Cup and World Cup. As I said, our batting has been poor and at some part, our fielding was poor as well.
See, the bowling, especially our spin-bowling is very good. I am really happy with their performance. Our opening batters, especially Gurbaz have been brilliant and doing well. The middle-order needs to take responsibility and needs to step up. We will work on that part. A few injuries for us moving into the series and we missed some players there."
Babar Azam (Pakistan Captain): "Thank you again! Yeah, now, we are the number one ranked ODI side. Credits go to the boys, all of them have been doing the hard yards. The players went across to participate in the leagues after the Test series (versus Sri Lanka). We had a small camp ahead of the series in Lahore. The management and the boys have to get the credits for this.
Absolutely, Afghanistan have one of the best spin-bowling attacks in the world. This series should help us in the Asia Cup.
The conditions were not easy for the batting in the first innings. Rizwan and myself tried to rebuild with a cautious approach and decided to take the innings deep.
We had a good bench strengths and a great bunch of players. We tried different combinations. In a couple of days, we have our first match in the Asia Cup. So need to take this momentum to it.
(On getting mocked for his statement of Saud Shakeel making his debut during the toss) Haha (Starts with a chuckle). See, Saud has been a great player of the spin. He is selected for the Asia Cup. That was what I said after going into the dressing room following the toss. Everyone said that Shakeel had already played and I just smiled (a weird one). Yeah, he is a good player of the spin and has done well so far."
Absolutely, Afghanistan have one of the best spin-bowling attacks in the world. This series should help us in the Asia Cup.
The conditions were not easy for the batting in the first innings. Rizwan and myself tried to rebuild with a cautious approach and decided to take the innings deep.
We had a good bench strengths and a great bunch of players. We tried different combinations. In a couple of days, we have our first match in the Asia Cup. So need to take this momentum to it.
(On getting mocked for his statement of Saud Shakeel making his debut during the toss) Haha (Starts with a chuckle). See, Saud has been a great player of the spin. He is selected for the Asia Cup. That was what I said after going into the dressing room following the toss. Everyone said that Shakeel had already played and I just smiled (a weird one). Yeah, he is a good player of the spin and has done well so far."
Babar Azam receives the trophy and now the whole Pakistani squad pose for the photographs.
A series that had plenty of ups and downs with Pakistan holding their nerves in crunch moments. They would be satisfied with this series white wash against Afghanistan before the Asia Cup that begins on 30th August. I am AkshayaKrishna Polya signing off on behalf of my co-commentator Ayan Chatterjee (1st Innings) and scorer/analyst Zeeshan Naiyer, who brought you all the live-action of this final game of the three-match series. We will meet in the next game. Until then, it's cheers!