Sarfraz Ahmed, the Pakistan captain, had praise for the Afghanistan side, and admitted his side had been “shaken” on their way to a nervy three-wicket last-over win in their Super Four match of the Asia Cup.

AVA- “We were shaken,” Ahmed said. “The way Imam, Babar and Shoaib played towards the end was fantastic, but to chase 250 in these conditions against the Afghanistan spinners who I think are the best in the world, you have to bat really well.”
“We get confidence from the way we won,” added Ahmed. “As you know, the team has improved a lot on its fielding over the last few years, but today we didn’t show that. Regardless, the team has been motivated by this performance.”
Malik, who has enjoyed a good run in Asia Cup tournaments through the years, stuck around even as wickets fell around him.
“Being a senior player, when you’ve played enough cricket, you know when you already have a start, the goal is to bat till the 50th over,” he said. “At one point the required rate was almost 10 but I kept telling myself to bat till the end because we had batsmen to hit the big shots later.”