Lateef Bashir

Varun Chakaravarthy to Sahibzada Farhan, OUT! PICKS OUT TILAK! Varun strikes, India finally get the much needed breakthrough. One shot too many from Farhan and perishes now. Drops it short, angled into middle and leg. Farhan heaved it straight down the throat of deep mid-wicket, Tilak didn't have to move an inch.

It was a forgettable night for Afghanistan, at least with the bat. A target of 142 was not too big to chase, but their batting lineup simply collapsed. Wickets kept falling at regular intervals, and only two batters managed to reach double figures. To make matters worse, the innings also featured three ducks.

The highest partnership was just 21 runs for the second wicket between Sediqullah Atal and Ibrahim Zadran. Once Atal was dismissed, the innings quickly folded, leaving Afghanistan with little resistance.

The Sharjah crowd was left stunned. Fans had turned up in large numbers to support both Pakistan and Afghanistan, but no one could have predicted such a one-sided outcome. Afghanistan suffered a heavy defeat, losing by 75 runs.

The only silver lining for Afghanistan is that this wasn’t their lowest T20I score. That unfortunate record still belongs to their 56 all out against South Africa in the T20 World Cup semifinal. Tonight’s performance, however, goes down as their second-lowest total in T20I history.

From Pakistan’s perspective, this was a remarkable defense. Overall, this is the second-lowest total ever successfully defended in Sharjah. But in the context of a night match, it now stands as the lowest defended total at the venue.