A very good official crowd of 23,284 was present at the MA Chidambaram Stadium in Chepauk as Afghanistan stunned Pakistan by eight wickets in Chennai to register their first ever WC win over their neighbours.
After winning the toss and electing to bat first, Pakistan openers Abdullah Shafique and Imam-ul-Haq got their side off to a solid start. The pair added 56 runs for the opening stand before the latter perished to Azmatullah Omarzai for 17.
Skipper Babar Azam (70) and Abdullah Shafique (54) scored half-centuries at the top, while Shadab Khan and Iftikhar Ahmed scored valuable runs down the order to take Pakistan to a respectable score of 282/7 in their 50 overs.
Left arm spinner Noor Ahmad was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 3-49.
In reply, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran got Afghanistan off to a fantastic start. The duo put on 130 runs for the first wicket before the former top edged a delivery from Shaheen Shah Afridi to Usama Mir for 65.
Zadran missed out on a well-deserved century, scoring 87 off 113, which included 10 fours. However Rahmat Shah (77)* along with skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (48)* shared an unbeaten 96 run stand for the third wicket to take Afghanistan to an emphatic 8 wicket win.
Afghanistan will next play Sri Lanka at the MCA Stadium in Pune on October 30.
Afghanistan 286 for 2 (Ibrahim 87, Rahmat 77*, Gurbaz 65, Shahidi 48*, Hasan 1-41) beat Pakistan 282 for 7 (Babar 74, Shafique 58, Noor 3-49, Naveen 2-52) by eight wickets
