Naseem Shah's two sixes sent Pakistan into Asia Cup final, India and Afghanistan out of the tournament

 Naseem Shah's two sixes sent Pakistan into Asia Cup final, India and Afghanistan out of the tournament

Naseem Shah's two sixes sent Pakistan into Asia Cup final, India and Afghanistan out of the tournament

Pakistan and Afghanistan are not traditional rivals like Pakistan in the cricket field, but still their matches have a heated atmosphere.

Who can forget the 2018 Asia Cup, 2019 World Cup and last year's T20 World Cup matches?

At the Sharjah Stadium on Wednesday night as well, the enthusiastic fans were expecting another exciting contest and they were not disappointed.

Youngster Naseem Shah's two sixes took Pakistan to the final with a dramatic one-wicket victory in the last over.

Pakistan will face Sri Lanka in the final to be played on Sunday. Earlier on Friday, these two teams will also compete in the last match of the Super Four.

Pakistani bowling on top

Sharjah Cricket Stadium is home to both Pakistan and Afghanistan teams. In this familiar atmosphere and conditions, Babar Azam won the toss and decided to blow the fuse of the Afghan batting first through his bowlers.

Afghanistan lost six wickets to reach just 129 runs in twenty overs

This is also his lowest score against Pakistan, before which he scored 137 runs for eight wickets at the same Sharjah Stadium in 2013.

Hazratullah Zazai ar Rehmanullah Garbaz's intentions were dangerous which he showed in the first overs of Naseem Shah and Muhammad Hasnain but then everything was visible in the first over of Haris Rauf.

Hazratullah Zazai hit two consecutive fours and then Naseem Shah's drop catch gave him a chance to save his wicket, but in the same over, Haris Rauf bowled the dangerous Rehmanullah Garbaz, who bowled Mohammad Hasnain twice in a short innings of 17 runs. They had hit sixes and seemed to be in the mood to doomsday.

Mohammad Hasnain didn't let his spirits drop despite hitting two sixes and in his second over bowled Hazratullah Zazai to silence the Afghanistan dressing room.

Zazai scored 21 runs with the help of four fours. Afghanistan scored 48 runs in six overs of the powerplay after losing both openers.

It was not easy for Ibrahim Zadran and Kareem Jannat to play open in front of Mohammad Nawaz, Shadab Khan and Haris Rauf. In the same frustration, Karim Jannat scored only 15 runs and was caught by Fakhr Zaman at long on off the ball of Muhammad Nawaz.

Afghanistan's third wicket fell on 78 runs in the twelfth over. It was Muhammad Nawaz's eighth wicket in the tournament, thus surpassing Afghanistan's off-spinner Mujibur Rahman.

Ibrahim Zadran and Najeebullah Zadran led Afghanistan to victory with their responsible batting against Bangladesh in the same field in which Najeebullah Zadran's six sixes hit the Bangladeshi bowlers like lightning, but Shadab Khan gave him the chance. He did not give and showed the way to the pavilion through another catch of Fakhrzaman for 10 runs.

In the next over, Naseem Shah bowled captain Muhammad Nabi for zero on the very first ball, then the Afghanistan team had lost 5 wickets for 91 runs and had distanced themselves from a big score.

Ibrahim Zadran could not go beyond 35 runs despite all his efforts and became Haris Rauf's second wicket in the match.

Rashid Khan managed to score 18 runs with the help of one six and two fours, but the Pakistani bowlers kept the situation completely under their control. Haris Rauf took two wickets.

Hasnain and Naseem Shah got one wicket each, while Nawaz and Shadab's spin attack in eight overs saw the Afghan batsmen manage to score only fifty runs and they also had to pay the price of two wickets.