New Delhi. Pakistan cricket team has got such a player in the form of young all-rounder Arafat Minhas who forced the strong team of England to kneel with his strong performance. In the ODI tri-series match played in Rawalpindi, 21-year-old Minhas first played an important inning of 59 runs with the bat and then destroyed England's batting by taking six wickets in the bowling. Thanks to his brilliant all-round performance, Pakistan defeated England by 87 runs. With this win, Pakistan registered its second win in the tournament and Minhas caught the attention of the cricket world.
In this match played at Rawalpindi Cricket Stadium on 20 October, England won the toss and decided to bowl first. Pakistan had a very bad start and Gus Atkinson dismissed Fakhar Zaman on the very first ball of the innings. Sam Ayub also returned to the pavilion after scoring only eight runs. After this, Babar Azam scored 34 runs in 52 balls but he failed to play a big innings. Salman Ali Aga was also out after scoring 16 runs. Pakistan had lost four wickets at the score of just 59 runs and the team looked to be in trouble.
At such a time, Hasan Nawaz and Saad Baig took the responsibility of handling the innings. Both the batsmen tried to get the team out of trouble by making useful partnerships. Saad Baig scored 35 runs while Hasan Nawaz batted aggressively and scored 79 runs in 74 balls. His innings included five fours and four sixes. After Hasan Nawaz was out, Arafat Minhas took charge and played a brilliant inning of 59 runs in 58 balls. He hit nine fours in his innings and made an important partnership of 72 runs with Faheem Ashraf for the seventh wicket. Faheem increased Pakistan's run pace by scoring 39 runs in 25 balls. With useful contribution from captain Shaheen Afridi, Pakistan scored 302 runs for nine wickets in 50 overs.
The England team, which came to chase the target of 303 runs, made a fast start. Tom Banton and Ben Duckett put pressure on Pakistan's bowlers by adding 91 runs for the first wicket. Duckett scored 45 runs while Banton scored 57 runs in 53 balls. Haris Rauf broke this partnership by dismissing Duckett and after this Arafat Minhas sent Banton to the pavilion. Minhas also dismissed England captain Harry Brook for just five runs. After this England's innings started faltering. Joe Root scored 33 runs but was bowled by Naseem Shah. Haris Rauf further increased England's problems by dismissing Sam Curran for 27 runs.
After this, Arafat Minhas completely dominated the England batsmen. After dismissing Jordan Cox and Jamie Overton, he also took the wickets of Will Jacques and Adil Rashid. In this way he broke the back of England's batting by taking six wickets. Minhas took six wickets for just 40 runs in 8.4 overs. Haris Rauf got two wickets and Naseem Shah got one wicket. The entire England team was all out for 215 runs in 38.4 overs and Pakistan won the match by 87 runs. Arafat Minhas, who performed brilliantly with both bat and ball, proved that he can become an important all-rounder for Pakistan cricket in the future.