Pakistan started their campaign in the Asia Cup 2023 with a bang, defeating Nepal by a huge margin of 238 runs as the Babar Azam-led Pakistani team won the first match of the tournament. After this win, Babar Azam said about the India-Pakistan match that this match always brings a lot of intensity, we will try to do well in it as well. Let us tell you that, on the basis of captain Babar Azam and Iftikhar’s century, Pakistan batted first in this match and gave Nepal a huge target of 343 runs, against this score, the entire team of Nepal collapsed. 104 runs in just 23.4 overs. Pakistan’s next match is against India on September 2.
After crushing Nepal badly, Babar Azam said in the post presentation, ‘When I went in, the ball wasn’t coming in, so I was trying to build an innings with Rizwan. Then we had a different phase, sometimes Rizwan trusted me, sometimes I trusted him. Iftikhar also played a great innings as soon as he came. When he came in I asked him to play his natural game and after 2-3 fours he got comfortable. We didn’t do well in some overs, but the way our fast bowlers started and then the spinners did brilliantly. This win will give us confidence, India and Pakistan always bring high intensity, we will try our best.
Talking about Pakistan and Nepal match, in this match Babar Azam won the toss and decided to bat first. Fakhar Zaman tried to get the team off to a good start by hitting two fours in the first over, but Nepal’s bowlers made a strong comeback and forced Pakistan to surrender. At one point, the hosts lost both their openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq for 25 runs. Babar Azam then took command of the team with a partnership of 86 runs with Mohammad Rizwan (44).
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Pakistan also lost the wicket of Agha Salman within 13 runs after Mohammad Rizwan was run out strangely. Against a team like Nepal, Pakistan was once again in trouble after being 125 runs for 4 wickets. Then Iftikhar Ahmed, who came to support Babar Azam, scored the first century of his ODI career to take the team past 300. Iftikhar played a blistering innings of 109 runs off 71 balls with the help of 11 fours and 4 towering sixes. Along with this, Babar Azam scored 151 runs by playing the biggest innings as a captain in the history of Asia Cup. Meanwhile, Babar faced 131 balls and hit 14 fours and 4 sixes.
Chasing a score of 343, the Nepalese team did not get off to a good start. Shaheen Afridi put the visitors on the back foot with two knocks in the first over, while Naseem Shah also took 1 wicket in his first over. After losing 3 wickets for 14 runs, Arif Sheikh (26) and Sompal Kami (28) put on a 59-run partnership to give Nepal some hope, but after the pair broke, the whole team collapsed like a house of cards. . Meanwhile, Shadab Khan took the most 4 wickets.