Colombo: Sahibzada Farhan struck a scintillating, maiden hundred to lift Pakistan to a formidable 199 for three against Namibia in their must-win T20 World Cup match here Wednesday.
Farhan, who needed just 20 deliveries to move from 50 to 100, ended on 100 not out off 58 balls, becoming only the second player from Pakistan to score a century in the tournament after Ahmed Shehzad’s ton against Bangladesh in 2014 at Mirpur.
In all, Farhan hit 11 boundaries and four sixes while adding 67 runs with skipper Salman Agha (38 off 23 balls) and 81 runs with Shadab Khan (36 not out off 22 balls).
Batting first, Pakistan managed 47 runs in the powerplay for the loss of Saim Ayub’s (14 off 12 balls) wicket.
Seeking to recover from the heavy defeat to traditional rivals India, Pakistan strengthened their batting with the inclusion of Khawaja Nafay in the middle order while leaving out the woefully out-of-sorts pacer Shaheen Shah Afridi.
While the team did get the occasional boundaries, their approach was far from ideal as they resorted to defensive batting, which pretty much explained why they were 55 for one after overs at the Sinhalese Sports Club.
However, skipper Salman Agha broke the shackles at the start of the ninth overs with a six off Willem Myburgh, the batter coming down the track to smack one over long-on.
Taking a cue from his captain, Farhan launched into leg-spinner Myburgh for a big six over deep mid-wicket, and then, sent his tossed-up googly soaring over the same region in a similar fashion, using the slog sweep to good effect on both occasion.
The three sixes in one over gave Pakistan’s run rate a boost, and Salman Agha then lofted Bernard Scholtz straight down the ground for another maximum.
However, Agha was out caught by Gerhard Erasmus off Brassell in the next over.
Picked for this game, Nafay began with a boundary after he rocked back to cut the ball through backward point.
Nafay’ brief stay, though, was cut short when he was caught and bowled by Namibian skipper Erasmus.
Meanwhile, Farhan continued to spearhead Pakistan’s batting, cutting, pulling and driving with finesse to dominate Namibian bowlers.
Shadab ended the Pakistan innings with a couple of sixes against Erasmus in the last over.
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