- India,
- 30-Aug-2023 09:59 PM IST
PAK vs NEP: Pakistan has started its campaign in Asia Cup 2023 with a bang. Pakistan, hosting the Asia Cup after 15 years, unilaterally defeated Nepal by 238 runs in the very first match of the tournament. Captain Babar Azam and Iftikhar Ahmed scored brilliant centuries for Pakistan in this match played in Multan, on the basis of which the team scored 342 runs. After this, Shaheen Shah Afridi and Haris Rauf destroyed the Nepali batting and gave the team an easy victory.The first match of the Asia Cup was played at the Multan Cricket Stadium on Wednesday 30 August and the result was as expected. The Nepal cricket team making its debut in the tournament could not stand in front of Pakistan's strong batting and deadly bowling. Although Nepal had made a good start in the first bowling, but due to some poor fielding and then bowling inexperience in the last over, could not stop Pakistan from scoring big.When openers failed, Babar-Iftikhar changed the gameThe opening pair of the Pakistani team has failed to give a good start for the last few matches and this trend continued here as well. Fakhar Zaman was dismissed by Curran KC in the sixth over, while Imam Ul Haq was run out on the first ball of the very next over. Pakistan had lost 2 wickets for just 25 runs. From here, there was a partnership of 86 runs between Mohammad Rizwan and Pakistani captain Babar Azam, which took the team under control. Rizwan was run out even before his half-century.However, Nepal soon got the next breakthrough and Salman Aga was dismissed by Sandeep Lamichhane. After this, Nepal yearned for wickets. Babar and Iftikhar Ahmed batted brilliantly and added 214 runs for the fifth wicket. During this, Babar completed his 19th century and was out in the last over after scoring 151 runs. Whereas Iftikhar scored his first century in just 67 balls and remained not out after scoring 109 runs. Nepal's fielders made many mistakes during this period and gave many boundaries and extra runs to Pakistan.