Opener Sahibzada Farhan hit a solid half-century while spinner Usman Tariq grabbed three wickets as Pakistan downed the United States by 32 runs in a T20 World Cup Group A game in Colombo on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old hit five sixes and six fours in his 41-ball 73 and was aided by a brilliant 32-ball 46 by Babar Azam (four fours, one six) to guide Pakistan to 190-9 at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground.
Their spinners then checked the inexperienced USA batting with Tariq taking 3-27 and Shadab Khan 2-26 to restrict their opponents to 158-8 in 20 overs.
The win avenged Pakistan’s shock defeat at the hands of USA in the T20 World Cup two years ago and handed them a second win in as many games following their close three-wicket win over the Netherlands on Saturday.
For the USA, Shubham Ranjane top scored with a valiant 30-ball 51 including three sixes and as many fours before he fell to pace bowler Shaheen Shah Afridi, who was playing his 100th T20 international.
Opener Shayan Jahangir muscled his way to an attractive 34-ball 49 studded with two sixes and five fours while Milind Kumar scored 29 before United States were derailed from 123-3.
“It was a clinical performance as we batted really well to post 190 and we knew we could defend that,” said Pakistan captain Salman Agha.
“There is always room for improvement, we’d like to bowl better in the powerplay before the next game.”
Pakistan’s next game is against arch-rivals India in Colombo on Sunday, a game only cleared by Pakistan government on Monday after initially announcing a boycott of it.
“We were in the game in the powerplay but again in the middle overs we couldn’t show intent and lost wickets,” said USA captain Monank Patel.
Earlier, Farhan and fellow opener Saim Ayub, who scored a 17-ball 19 with two sixes, put on 54 in five overs.
Pakistan then lost two wickets in the sixth over of their innings, bowled by Shadley van Schalkwyk.
Ayub was caught off a slower one while Agha holed out on the deep square-leg boundary for one.
Farhan and Azam took control with an 81-run third-wicket stand as Pakistan cut loose in the middle overs.
Farhan passed 1,000 T20 international runs in his 41st match before he was caught in the covers off spinner Harmeet Singh in the 16th over.
Shadab Khan launched an assault to score 30 off 12 balls before Pakistan lost five wickets for just 13 runs in the last two overs.
Schalkwyk was the best USA bowler with 4-25, following his four-wicket haul against India in the 29-run defeat on Saturday.
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