Two great debuts and an Afridi innings mark a memorable Pakistan win

Umar Amin (in pic above) and Zulfiqar Babar had memorable debuts for Pakistan yesterday

It has been a long time since a debutant shone for Pakistan.

Mohammad Aamer comes to mind, Nasir Jamshed had a good debut, Umar Akmal had an awesome Test debut, but all that was over 3 years ago.

It’s been some time since Pakistan fielded an exciting prospect.

Last night, however, there were two!

Not sure how great a prospect a 34-year-old is, but given that it was Zulfiqar Babar’s first ever international match, he looked extremely fresh and can easily be around the scene for another 4-5 years.

What a debut the man had!

A wicket in his first international over, 3 crucial wickets of Samuels, Simmons, and Bravo, and a match winning six off the final ball of the match.

That was surely a dream debut.

The other debutant, Umar Amin, top scored for Pakistan, hitting a fluent 47, which was by far his best international innings.

He has played Tests and ODIs before and has never looked like a batsman in command. But last night he looked like Hashim Amla in disguise.

His drives and pulls were crisp and in no time he had raced into the 40s with the help of 9 boundaries.

That was a match-winning inning by Umar Amin.

Two great debuts in the same match coupled with a super knock by Shahid Afridi – what a game it was for Pakistan!

Afridi played a completely un-Afridi-like innings.

He controlled the innings from the moment he walked out to bat. He played sensibly, controlled the strike, managed singles and double while punishing the bad deliveries, continuously kept talking to Babar, and ensured that Pakistan was on top of the chase.

By the time Afridi left, he had got Pakistan into a winning situation.

Unfortunately our tail is so bad that 8 off 7 looks difficult, but for any other team it would have been like a walk in the park.

Babar got us over the line eventually, but it probably would not have happened had it not been for Shahid Afridi.