Rahmanullah Gurbaz sparkling knock of 151 went in vain, as Pakistan beat Afghanistan in an last over thriller in the second one day international in Hambantota on Thursday.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran got Afghanistan off to a blazing start. The duo added 227 runs for the opening stand before the former holed out to Iftikhar Ahmed at long off off leg spinner Usama Mir for 80.
Left arm pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi then got into the act by dismissing both Gurbaz (151) and Rashid Khan (2) in the 45th over.
Mohammad Nabi made a run a ball 29 before perishing to Naseem Shah. Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi scored some useful runs down the order to lift the hosts to 300/5 in their allotted 50 overs.
Chasing 301, Pakistan openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq got their side off to a solid start. The pair put on 52 runs for the first wicket before the former was cleaned up by Fazalhaq Farooqi for 30.
Imam featured in a second wicket stand of 118 runs alongside Babar Azam before the latter miscued a flick off Farooqi for 53.
Mohammed Nabi struck twice in the 38th over by dismissing both Agha Salman and Usama Mir for 14 & 0 respectively.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman claimed Haq (91) in the very next over leaving Pakistan in trouble at 211/6. Iftikhar Ahmed along with Shadab Khan resurrected the innings with a valuable 47 run stand for the seventh wicket before the former (17) was dismissed by Abdul Rahman.
Shadab hit Abdul Rahman for a four and a six off the last two balls to bring the equation down to 11 off the final over.
Farooqi ran out Shadab (48) at the non-striker’s end with a Mankad as the non striker had backed up before the ball was bowled.
Naseem Shah came in and hit the first ball and the fifth ball for a boundary to give Pakistan a trilling win.
Pakistan 302 for 9 (Imam 91, Babar 53, Shadab 48, Farooqi 3-69) beat Afghanistan 300 for 5 (Gurbaz 151, Zadran 80, Shaheen 2-58) by one wicket