Asif Ali's carnage hands Pakistan five-wicket victory over Afghanistan

Pakistan bagged their third win on the trot by beating Afghanistan by 5 wickets in Dubai.

In their chase of 148 in 20 overs, Pakistan stuttered to 38/1 after 6 overs. They faced an early hiccup as Mujeeb Ur Rahman dismissed Mohammad Rizwan cheaply. Fakhar Zaman and skipper Babar Azam then steadied the team's ship, by finding regular boundaries and rotating the strike ably to register a 50-run partnership. They reached 72/1 after 10 overs.

In the next 5 overs, they lost 2 wickets for 29 runs as Fakhar Zaman (30) was dismissed by Nabi, while Rashid Khan scalped the wicket of Mohammad Hafeez, With that wicket, he became the fastest bowler to 100 T20I wickets.

Babar Azam reached 50 before being bowled by Rashid Khan. Afghanistan picked up wickets in quick succession.

But it was Asif Ali's unbeaten 7-ball 25 that took the side over the line with 6 balls and 5 wickets to spare.

Earlier in the first innings, courtesy of an unbeaten 35 each from Gulbadin and Mohammad Nabi, and their unbeaten 71-run stand, Afghanistan posted 147/6 in 20 overs. Earlier, we witnessed one of the most entertaining powerplays of the tournament so far. While Afghanistan blasted 49 in the first 6 overs, Pakistan managed to bag four wickets. Shaheen Shah Afridi, Imad Wasim, Hasan Rauf, and Hasan Ali bagged a wicket each. Wasim bagged one more wicket as Afghanistan, at the halfway stage, stuttered to 65/5. In the next five overs, the Afghans could only manage to add 28 runs, while losing Najib to Shadab Khan. 

Babar Azam (Pakistan captain):  
"The bowlers bowled brilliantly at the start, but I think we gave 10-15 runs too many away."
"We didn't quite use the Powerplay as well as we hoped but Asif and Shoaib Malik at the death were brilliant. The way Asif's played many innings at the PSL, I was very confident he'd get us out of any trouble we find ourselves in."
"We had to bowl according to the situation and see how to bowl to each batter. The bowlers deserve credit for executing those plans brilliantly. The spinners were getting a lot of help, and because Afghanistan have some of the best pinners, they were getting a lot of help and bowling really well. I wanted to stay till the end but got out, unfortunately. So credit to Asif Ali."

Mohammad Nabi (Afghanistan captain): 
"We didn't start really well - the total on the board was decent but maybe not enough." 
"We discussed that 150 was a decent score on the pitch, and we did manage to take the game deep. I thought Rashid bowled at the right time because at 10 overs, they still needed about 8 runs an over, but Asif Ali played that 19th over really well."
"There are many positives to take from this. We fought to the end and it's given me more motivation to win games."