Babar Azam, Rizwan help Pakistan reach No. 1 ODI rankings with series sweep vs Afghanistan

Pakistan went to the top of the ODI rankings after their clean sweep against Pakistan in the 3-match ODI series. Pakistan defeated Afghanistan at the R Premadasa Stadium on Saturday, 26 August by 59 runs to complete their series victory.

Pakistan moved up in the rankings and removed Australia from the top position ahead of the ODI World Cup 2023. The team will get a chance to remain at the top spot going into the premier ICC tournament if they can win the Asia Cup 2023. Pakistan now have 2725 points, ahead of Australia’s 2714. India are ranked third going into the continental tournament.

AFG vs PAK, 3rd ODI: Highlights

It was fitting that Pakistan were guided by captain Babar Azam and wicketkeeper Mohammad Rizwan, who struck a gritty 110-run partnership in tough batting conditions. Pakistan were off to a bat start with openers Fakhar Zaman and Imam-ul-Haq going back to the pavilion inside 13 overs and the onus lay on the senior batters of the side to do the majority of the work. Both Babar (60 off 86) and Rizwan (67 off 79) disappoint and patiently added runs in the first innings of the match.

Useful contributions from Salman Agha (38* off 31) and Muhammad Nawaz (30 off 25) gave Pakistan a respectable total to defend.

Pakistan would have been confident given they had defended 202 runs in the first ODI match of the series, but for this game, neither did they have Naseem Shah, nor Haris Rauf.

However, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Faheem Ashraf started off well with the new ball and jolted Afghanistan with the wicket of the previous match’s centurion Rahmanullah Gurbaz. Spinners Shadab Khan and Muhammad Nawaz did their part in restricting Afghanistan and Hashmatullah Shahidi’s team were 97/7 at the start of the 33rd over, staring at yet another defeat.

However, some fight had still remained in the spirited Afghans as Mujeeb Ur Rahman donned the batter’s role and hit a rapid half-century off 26 balls. This was the fastest ODI fifty by any Afghan player and it helped the Afghan total to look much better than it should have been. At the time Mujeeb got out via a hit wicket – the first time for an Afghan batter in international – Afghanistan had 199 runs on board. After Mujeeb’s 64 off 37, the Afghan side added just 10 runs more and were bowled out for 209 runs in 48.4 overs. Mohammad Rizwan was awarded the player of the match, while Imam-ul-Haq bagged the player of the series award.