Pakistan thumped Afghanistan by 59 runs on Saturday (26th August) at R.Premadasa Stadium, Colombo. Fifties from Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan and a three wicket haul from Shadab Khan helped them defying the heroic of Mujeeb Ur Rahman to clean sweep Afghanistan.

Earlier the day, Pakistan won the toss and they chose to bat first. Coming out to bat, Pakistani openers gave them a strong start as they added 36 runs on the board before Gulbadin Naib got rid of him. He also picked up the wicket of other opener Imam-Ul-Haq and Pakistan fell to 52-2.

However, skipper Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan built an excellent partnership to steer the ship for Pakistan. The duo forged a 110 run stand for third wicket before Babar fell to Rashid Khan for a brilliant 60 off 86 balls. After the departure of Babar, Rizwan too followed his partner as he scored 67 off 79 deliveries. Pakistan had a minor collapse at the middle as Saud Shakeel scored only 9 from 6 balls and Shadab Khan made 3 off only 8 balls.

But Agha Salman kept things on the track as he scored a quick-fire 38 off 31 deliveries. He was well supported by Mohammad Nawaz's fantastic 30 from 25 balls. With the help of late order's heroics Pakistan posted 268 runs on the board in a slowish track.

In reply of 269, Afghanistan fell into a deep trouble. They lost their last match's centurion Gurbaz for 5 off 15. Riaz Hassan scored only 34 from 66 deliveries and couldn’t long the innings. Ibrahim Zadran got an 11 ball duck and fell to Faheen Ashraf. Skipper Shahidi scored only 13 after consuming 31 deliveries.
However their middle order too didn't wage and failed miserably.

But the final fight came from Mujeeb Ur Rahamn, who absolutely was on song. Who raced to his fifty off just 26 deliveries. He continued to do the damage as he went for scoring a swashbuckling 64 off only 37 deliveries before getting out to hit wicket. And then it became mere a formality to finish the game and Pakistan did it nicely and won the match by 59 runs. With the win, they whitewashed Afghanistan and had a strong preparation for the ensuing Asia Cup.