RAWALPINDI: Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi praised Salman Ali Agha, Hussain Talat and Haris Rauf after the trio’s eye-catching efforts took Pakistan to a thrilling six-run win over Sri Lanka in the ODI opener in Rawalpindi.
Batting first, the Green Shirts had fallen to 95/4 in 23.2 overs after getting off to a shaky start, thanks to Wanindu Hasaranga’s triple-wicket spell.
However, a 138-run partnership for the fifth wicket between Agha and Talat anchored their innings, while an unbeaten 66-run stand between the former and Mohammad Nawaz eventually led them to a formidable total.
Agha remained the top scorer for the Greenshirts with an unbeaten century, making 105 off 87 deliveries with the help of nine fours, followed by Talat, who made a 63-ball 62, while Nawaz came in with 36 not out from 23 balls.
During the post-match presentation, Shaheen revealed that the hosts initially battled to register around 250 points on the board but credited Agha and Talat for almost guiding them to the 300-point mark.
“The players played well. The way we started and the early wicket losses… the credit goes to Agha and Talat,” Shaheen said.
“The way we started with the bat, our dot-ball percentage was very high. We wanted to score 250-260 the way we started, but 300 is a big total,” he added.
The second innings followed the same pattern with Sri Lanka finding themselves in a dominant position until the completion of eleven overs, but Pakistan forced a comeback through pacer Rauf, who halted their progress with three wickets in his two overs.
Haris eventually returned economical bowling figures of 4/49 in his 10 overs, while fellow pacer Naseem Shah and fast bowling all-rounder Faheem Shah provided valuable support by taking two wickets each, allowing Pakistan to successfully defend the total and beat Sri Lanka by six runs.
“But more credit goes to Haris Rauf; the way he started was really great. Haris is always a wicket-taker for Pakistan. He was our top player in white-ball cricket. Haris is our main bowler,” Shaheen added.
Notably, Haris’ fourth wicket came with the support of Babar Azam, who took a sensational one-handed catch at wide slip to dismiss Sadeera Samarawickrama.
“Babar’s catch was like Superman’s,” Shaheen said of the one-handed blinder to end his post-match interview with a smile.
