People were surprised at my selection: Fahim Ashraf

It was a gripping contest between the Asian rivals Bangladesh and Pakistan playing at the neutral venue in England. The match was too good to be not considered as an official match, with the amount of hard work put in by both the teams.

The pre-tournament friendlies often lead the teams either to discover any hidden talent or to make a player injured ahead of the tournament. It was a case of the former situation in the Pakistan-Bangladesh friendly. The Tigers’ won the toss and elected to bat first on a rather flat pitch for the bowlers.

Batting first, the Tigers’ scored a total of 341 for the loss of nine wickets in their 50 overs. The partnership between the left-handed opener Tamim Iqbal and fellow southpaw Imrul Kayes set up the platform for the Tigers’ for a strong total. Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal scored an incredible hundred in just 90 balls, with nine boundaries and four sixes at a strike rate of 109.67 while Imrul Kayes scored 61 off 62 balls to lead the Tigers’ to a total of 341.

In reply, the Pakistani opening pair got off to the worst of starts, with Azhar Ali getting out for eight runs, followed by the youngster Babar Azam. The partnership between Mohammed Hafeez and Shoaib Malik gave the Men in Green a strong reason to believe. With 63 runs required from the last five overs, it seemed that it was done and dusted for Pakistan before a momentous inning from the uncapped player Fahim Ashraf, who scored 64 runs from 30 balls to help Pakistan cross over the line on the given day.

I had faith in Allah

Following the win, the man of the night Fahim Ashraf said “Captain had faith in me. I believed we could win especially when the boundaries were coming.” Further, he said that he did not have problems with any of the boundaries or its size, “I have no problems with the size of any boundaries.”

He, further said “Yes people were surprised at my selection. But I had faith in Allah that my selection would be justified.”

Ashraf concluded by saying “If I am picked against India I hope to perform the same way that I did today”. It will be an incredible story if Ashraf goes on to play for Pakistan against arch-rivals India on the biggest stage of World Cricket.