Gulbadin Naib pleased with Afghanistan’s morale boosting victory over Pakistan
collected
|| CF Correspondent ||
Afghanistan captain Gulbadin Naib stressed the significance of his side’s thrilling victory against Pakistan after their opening warm-up game for the World Cup.
Naib’s men beat Pakistan by three-wickets at the Bristol County Ground for their first-ever ODI victory against Sarfaraz Ahmed’s side in only their fourth meeting.
Babar Azam continued his impressive form as he struck a century for Pakistan as they posted 262 all out, but it was not enough to prevent Afghanistan completing a successful run-chase.
Hashmattullah Shaidi finished unbeaten on 74 not out as the Afghans prevailed with two balls to spare - and Naib hailed the confidence-boosting performance from his side.
“Pakistan are a good team,” said Naib. “I respect them and they have huge respect in the cricket world, so today is our day and we played some good cricket.
“I thought before the start of the game we would need 300-plus runs in my mind, but the bowlers did really well - the likes of Hamid Hassan, Mujeeb Rahman and Mohammad Nabi.
“That’s what helped us defeat them as they finished on 262. We have the bowling attack to be able to do that but we need to improve in our batting.
“Today is the day we’ve been waiting for, especially all Afghanistan fans. To beat Afghanistan on this kind of stage is not a small thing for us, this is big for us.
“I have full confidence in my team, the morale is very high among the boys and we’re really excited to be here. I am sure we will improve more and more as we go on.”
Pakistan were coming into the game off the back of a 4-0 ODI series defeat to England and the loss to Afghanistan extends their winless run to 11 consecutive one-day games.
They found themselves in trouble after being reduced to 65-3 when Nabi stuck twice in the 12th over, before Azam (112) and Shoaib Malik (44) put on 103 for the fifth wicket.
Hazratullah Zazai then got Afghanistan’s chase off to a blistering start with 49 from 28 balls, before Shahidi steered his country to a famous victory despite Wahab Riaz taking 3-46.
But Naib insists the best is yet to come from Afghanistan, who were knocked out in the group stage on their World Cup debut in 2015, as they prepare for a second warm-up game against England.
“If you look back to my country the last 30-40 years, the situation in Afghanistan, everyone just wants a reason to smile and I think only cricket gives to them joy, entertainment and unity,” he said.
“I think to see our fans who are living in England, not just here in Bristol but from London, Manchester, coming and cheering on their team is the sort of support we needed.
“It is a good start for our team and for the last eight months we’ve waited for this day, not even just for Pakistan but looking forward for the other matches in the tournament.
“If you look at Pakistan’s side it’s got a lot of experience in bowling attack, Wahab Riaz bowled really well, so the game was in our hands and we just carried on and played our game.”
