Pakistan’s batsmen kept messing up what was supposed to be an easy run chase after restricting Afghanistan to 129 for 6 at Sharjah on Wednesday. Till then, the Indians were breathing easy. Afghanistan felt they had wrapped the game up when Pakistan, with just one wicket in hand and their Nos. 10 and 11 batters out in the middle, needed as many as 11 to get in the deciding over of this Asia Cup Super Four game.

And then the unbelievable happened. Out of nowhere, 19-year-old Naseem Shah, primarily one of the weapons of Pakistan’s pace attack, hammered the otherwise impressive Fazalhaq Farooqi for back-to-back sixes off the first two balls of the final over to snatch victory away from Afghanistan’s grasp. It also shattered India’s hopes of staying alive in the competition.

Courtesy those meaty blows from Naseem (14 not out off 4 balls), Pakistan won the game by a wicket with four balls to spare and also confirmed that they would meet Sri Lanka in Sunday’s decider. For Afghanistan and India, their clash on Thursday in Dubai is now just of academic interest.

With the rest of the Afghanistan batters unable to cash in on a solid start provided by openers Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz, the likes of Farooqi (3/31), his left-arm pace colleague Fareed Ahmad (3/31) and of course, Rashid Khan (2/25), bowled their hearts out to keep Pakistan at bay. Pakistan, though, were still well placed at 87 for 3 in the 16th over, thanks to Shadab Khan (36) and Iftikhar Ahmed (30) even after Farooqi and Rashid bowled a superb line to trap captain Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan plumb in front.

Thereafter, poor shot selection and an absolute lack of application from some of the Pakistani batters helped Afghanistan gain the upper hand. Asif Ali, who otherwise looked steady, played a poor stroke as well off Fareed, only to get into an altercation with the bowler after his dismissal. The going appeared to be getting tough for Pakistan, till Naseem did the unbelievable. With the ball too, Naseem (1/19) did a decent job.

Although the actual credit goes to spinners Mohammad Nawaz (1/23) and Shadab (1/27) as they again helped Pakistan seize the momentum with their tight bowling in the middle overs. Pacer Haris Rauf (2/26) also did his job for Pakistan, giving them the breakthrough by cleaning up Gurbaz.