Salman Ali Agha’s 53 Runs Victory over Afghanistan

Salman Ali Agha‘s crucial innings of 53 runs helped team Pakistan in stealing the victory in the 1st Match of the UAE T20I Tri-Series 2025. With this win Pakistan team is leading the points table.

Pakistan’s Innings

Pakistan team won the toss and elected to bat first. This decision was helped team Pakistan in securing 18 runs in from the first 2 over. However, team Pakistan lost their first wicket in the form of Sahibzada Farhan, who scored 21 runs facing off just 10 deliveries. With few more boundaries, Pakistan team was standing at 54 runs for the loss of 1 wicket after 6 overs.

Fall of wickets for team Pakistan

Team Pakistan lost their two crucial wickets in two consecutive overs (6th and 7th) in the form of Saim Ayub{ 14 off 16 balls} and Fakhar Zaman{ 20 off 17 balls}. With this fall of wickets, team Pakistan was standing at 76 runs with 7 wickets in hand.

Salman Ali Agha’s Entry

Now Salman Ali Agha and Hasan Nawaz were on the crease. Salman went for shots whenever he had a chance. However, the wickets kept on falling from the other end. Pakistan lost 4th wicket in the 12th over in the form of Hasan Nawaz{9 off 13 deliveries}. Salman Ali Agha managed to secure two fours from the same over. He followed it up with 2 consecutive sixes in the very next over. These back to back boundaries helped team Pakistan in shifting the pressure back to team Afghanistan.

Salman Ali Agha’s Fifty

In 16 over, Muhammad Nawaz{21 off 11 deliveries} lost his wicket, when he was caught by Darwish Rasooli, while trying for a big shot. However, Salman Ali Agha closed the next over with a beautiful six again with a clean hit towards the leg side. With a single on the 4th ball of the 18th over, Salman Ali Agha completed the milestone of the only fifty for team Pakistan. His brave and on time innings helped team Pakistan in giving a respectable target of 183 runs to team Afghanistan in 20 overs.

Afghanistan’s Innings

In the chase of 183 runs, team Afghanistan lost their first crucial wicket in the 3rd over in the form of Ibrahim Zadran{ 9 off 11 balls}. However, with the help of 2 fours in the 5th over, and a six on the last ball of the 6th over, team Afghanistan was standing at 50 runs with the loss on 1 wicket. Sediqullah Atal followed it up with 2 sixes from the next two consecutive overs. On the last ball of the 8th over, Nawaz claimed another wicket for Pakistan by bowling Gurbaz{38 off 27} deliveries.

Loss of 5 wickets in just 4 overs

On the 3rd delivery of the 12th over, Haris Rauf secured 3rd wicket for his team in the form of Sediqullah Atal{23 off 19 balls}. He followed it up by claiming another wicket on the last ball of the same over. On the very next delivery, Sufiyan Muqeem took the catch himself off Darwish Rasooli{21 off 13 balls}. On 4th delivery of the very next over, Muhammad Haris stumped Azmatullah{0 off 5 deliveries} with the help of Muhammad Nawaz. For the next over, Sufiyan Muqeem came into the bowling attack again and succeeded sending Nabi back to the pavilion, as Faheem took a catch at the long off boundary.

Rashid Khan’s Innings

Afghanistan‘s Captain Rashid Khan was on the crease and decided to took the responsibility in his own hands. He secured a six runs boundary on the 2nd ball of the 16th over. He followed that up with two consecutive boundaries in the very next over. He didn’t stop there, and secured two more consecutive sixes from the 17th over. He followed that up with another six on the 4th ball of the same over. However, on the last ball of the same over, he was caught by Hasan Nawaz while trying for another shot.He scored 39 runs facing off just 16 deliveries. On the very next delivery, Shaheen bowled Mujeeb.

Victory for team Pakistan

On the 2nd last delivery of the 2nd innings,Haris Rauf took the wicket of Fareed Ahmad. With that loss, Afghanistan team were all out on 143 runs. As a result, team Pakistan won the match by 39 runs.