Pakistan put one foot in the semi-finals of the Twenty20 World Cup as Asif Ali’s scintillating power-hitting secured a nervy five-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the Super 12 stage on Friday.
The 2009 champions restricted Afghanistan to 147 for six at Dubai International Stadium. The captain, Babar Azam, anchored Pakistan’s chase with a fluent 51 but it was Asif who smashed four sixes in the penultimate over from Karim Janat to clinch victory with six balls to spare.
The International Cricket Council has revealed thousands of ticketless fans attempted to force their way into the stadium.
Following the disruption, local police and security staff were forced to close the stadium, with a number of legitimate ticket holders denied entry.
In a statement released on Friday, the ICC said: “More than 16,000 tickets had been issued for tonight’s game between Pakistan and Afghanistan. However, thousands of ticketless fans travelled to the venue and then attempted to force entry into the stadium.
“Dubai Police and security staff secured the stadium to ensure the safety of everyone inside and brought in significant additional resources to disperse the crowd and calm the situation.
“At approximately 7pm, Dubai Police directed that all gates should remain closed and no further entry was permitted to maintain a safe and controlled environment inside the venue.”
Pakistan, having beaten India and New Zealand in their first two matches, are in effect in the last four, with matches against the qualifiers Namibia and Scotland remaining.
“Afghanistan have some of the best spinners, they were getting a lot of help and bowling really well,” Babar said. “I wanted to stay till the end but got out unfortunately. So credit to Asif Ali. Asif has played many such innings in the Pakistan Super League. I was very confident he’d get us out of any trouble.”
Earlier, the Pakistan pace bowler Shaheen Afridi repeatedly hit Hazratullah Zazai’s pad after the Afghanistan captain, Mohammad Nabi, elected to bat. Pakistan wasted a review trying to get Zazai lbw but reduced Afghanistan to 39 for four in the sixth over.
However Nabi and Gulbadan Naib both ended unbeaten on 35 to set Pakistan a respectable 148 to chase.
“There are many positives to take,” Nabi said after their first defeat of the tournament. “We fought to the end and it’s given us more motivation.”
Pakistan lost Mohammed Rizwan early in their reply but Babar and Fakhar Zaman (30) combined to shave off half of the victory target.
Pakistan needed 24 runs off the last two overs, but Asif needed only one of them to seal the victory with 25 not out off seven balls, which also earned him the man-of-the-match award.
Earlier, Andre Russell bowled an immaculate final over to help West Indies pip Bangladesh in a low-scoring thriller by three runs for a first win that kept their title defence alive.
The Spin: sign up and get our weekly cricket email.
Both sides came into the contest with two defeats from two and Bangladesh needed 13 in Russell’s final over to chase down West Indies’ 142 for seven – which was built on Nicholas Pooran’s 40 off 22 balls – on a slow wicket at Sharjah.
Russell did not find much support from his fielders, who were guilty of dropped catches and poor ground fielding, but still gave away only nine runs and restricted Bangladesh to 139 for five.