Atal, Zadran and Afghanistan spinners brush Pakistan aside

Afghanistan sealed an emotional victory over Pakistan with a sublime performance from their spinners, squeezing Salman Agha's men out and triumphing by 18 runs. In the wake of tragedy at home, a resilient performance in Sharjah proved much too good for Pakistan with Ibrahim Zadran and Sediqullah Atal producing a 113-run second wicket partnership that formed the backbone of their innings.

It was an innings held up almost entirely by that single pillar; while the two scored 65 and 64, no other batter managed to get beyond single figures. Pakistan's bowlers might have felt they'd done enough as an economical showing from Saim Ayub and a sensational one from Faheem Ashraf kept the Afghans on a leash, with Pakistan needing 170 to win in wet, dewy conditions.

For the Afghan spinners, though, the dew proved an almost laughably negligible impediment. Fazalhaq Farooqi set them up by getting rid of Ayub for a golden duck and a misfiring Sahibzada Farhan shortly after. It was just the window Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad and Mohammad Nabi needed to run riot in the middle. No Pakistan batter was ever really able to work out which way Noor turned the ball or how to target Rashid without taking extreme risks.

The trio took six wickets among them as Pakistan lost 7 for 49 to slump to 111 for 9. At the time they were looking at a chastening defeat, but Haris Rauf restored some balance to the scorecard with a breezy little cameo, an unbeaten 34 off 16 that took Pakistan past 150, and made the game look more competitive than Afghanistan's dazzling spin attack had ensured it really was.

Pakistan made a dream start after being put in to bowl with the early dismissal of Rahmanullah Gurbaz. By the end of the 4th over, Afghanistan had only shuffled along to 18. But Atal and Zadran have made a bit of a habit of partnerships that straddle multiple phases of an innings, and they produced their most impressive one yet.

The first signs of a gear shift came when Rauf, who struggled all day with the ball, was smashed for a four and a six in the fifth over. Thereon, Atal and Zadran rendered the Pakistan bowlers strangely toothless, while gradually cranking up the scoring rate. The signal to launch had been building, but at the same time seemed to come out of nowhere as the pair plundered 20 off Sufiyan Muqeem in the 14th over. By the time the partnership was finally broken, the duo had added 113 - the second highest second-wicket stand in Afghan T20I history.

On a forgettable day for Pakistan, Ashraf's spell with the ball stood out, going some way to burnishing his short form bowling credentials. It was a slow, spin friendly wicket, but with Pakistan struggling to break that Atal-Zadran stand, they turned to Ashraf in the tenth over. He went through it without either inflicting or sustaining much damage, but it was his three-over stint at the back end that demonstrated his value to his side.

It was he who broke that partnership off the second ball of the 15th, and was unfortunate not to snare Azmatullah Omarzai later on that over when Mohammad Nawaz shelled one. He would get his man with a beautifully disguised slower delivery next over, with another change of pace doing for Zadran two deliveries later. Taking pace of the ball continued to work when it proved too good for Nabi. At a time when Pakistan's bowlers were travelling from the other end, Ashraf's last three overs had seen just 18 scored and four wickets taken, ensuring the batting side were kept below 170.

This is why Afghanistan feel so confident defending totals. There was plenty of dew by the midpoint of Pakistan's pursuit, but Afghanistan's spinners buzzed around the batters, relishing their defence of a total that was just about par. Pakistan had consolidated after two early wickets, and kept up with the rate; just a couple of overs earlier, Fakhar Zaman took 15 off Omarzai's first over to help Pakistan to 52 for 2 in the powerplay.

In the eighth over, though, the spinners began to weave their web. Nabi threw in the change-up, darting the ball in as Fakhar sliced his smear to short third for Farooqi to grab. With the runs drying up, Pakistan threw in a signature unforced error, some lazy running combined with a clever bit of work from Rashid catching Salman short of his crease.

Left arm spinner Noor, curiously benched for the first two games, made up for lost time with a wicket off his first delivery to send Hasan Nawaz packing. Mohammad Haris failed to punish a long hop from Nabi the following over to allow Afghanistan to burrow deep into Pakistan's tail. They had gone from 62 for 2 to 82 for 6, and no amount of deep batting can hedge against that kind of collapse against an attack of Afghanistan's quality.