A long delay, some off the field drama, a gripping contest and an abrupt collapse later, Pakistan make it to the Super 4s. Meanwhile, UAE have been eliminated.
While Group A has been settled, there is still no surety about which two teams from Group B will make it to the next round. Three sides are in the hunt there. Hence, there is all to play for in Thursday's Sri Lanka vs Afghanistan fixture. Do join us for it. Our coverage will begin at 7:00 PM IST (5:30 PM local time).
For now, it is the troika of Darpan Tikiya, AkshayaKrishna Polya, and Paras Yadav signing off. Sayonara!
Most Player of the Match Awards for Pakistan in T20Is:
12 – Mohammad Rizwan, Shadab Khan
11 – Mohammad Hafeez, Shahid Afridi
9 – Babar Azam, Shaheen Shah Afridi*
7 – Umar Akmal 6 – Shoaib Malik
Salman Ali Agha (Pakistan Captain): "I think we did the job done. We still need to bat better in the middle order. We need to rethink that for the rest of the games. Our bowling has done a fine job.
We haven't batted as well as we would have wanted. If we batted well, we would have ended up with 170-180. Still, we are managing to win the game.
Shaheen Shah Afridi is a match-winner. His batting has improved, and he has been giving us some important runs down the order. He knows how to come out on top under pressure.
Abrar Ahmed has been outstanding. He is someone who is bringing us back into the games. He has been excellent, especially when we are playing here in the UAE.
We are ready for any challenge. We just need to play good cricket. If we manage to play good cricket, we can challenge any team in the world."
Muhammad Waseem (UAE captain): "I would like to give credit to our bowlers. They were exceptional today. I talked at the toss about restricting them to a low total. That is what they did. We were in the chase till the 15th-16th over, but then we lost wickets in clusters. Middle order has to take some responsibility. We need to learn and move forward. It has been really good playing against Pakistan and India. We have learnt many things from them."
Shaheen Shah Afridi (POTM): "Just practising in the nets. Nothing special. Whatever I have practised in the nets, I have executed the same in the middle.
Always happy with performances that help us to be in a winning position. We lost early wickets, and we lost wickets in the middle order as well. My job was to go out there and score some runs with the bat. Our team wanted an early breakthrough, and I was happy to get the job done."
Player of the Match: Shaheen Shah Afridi
Super Sixes of the Match: Fakhar Zaman
Game Changer of the Match: Shaheen Shah Afridi
12:52 AM IST and 11:22 PM Local Time: We are ready with the post-match ceremony...