Team Afghanistan caused another big upset after defeating Pakistan by 8 wickets in the ICC Men's Cricket World Cup 2023 on Monday in M. A. Chidambaram Stadium in Chennai of India.

On October 15, Afghanistan defeated England by 69 runs, which was its historic win.

In Monday's match, Pakistan won the toss and chose to bat first and made 282-7 against a spin-heavy quartet with captain Babar Azam (74) and Abdullah Shafique (58) scoring half centuries.

An aggressive 130-run opening stand between Ibrahim Zadran (87) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65) orchestrated Afghanistan’s 286-2 in 49 overs against out-of-sort Pakistan’s pace and spin bowling.

Rahmat Shah and captain Hashmatullah Shahidi built on the solid first-wicket stand by sharing an unbeaten 96-run third-wicket stand.

Shah remained unbeaten on 77 while Shahidi scored 48 not out as he raised the victory with a boundary against Shaheen Afridi at square leg.

The Associated Press quoted Afghan captain Shahidi saying that at the start of the tournament “we said that we are going to make this World Cup historic for our country. First it was England and now Pakistan.”

“This win tastes nice,” he said. “The way we chased today, it was very professional.”

Afghanistan beat England eight days ago. The win against Pakistan is the third victory at the World Cup for Afghanistan. It won its first ODI World Cup Match against Scotland in 2015.

It was also Pakistan’s first loss in an ODI against Afghanistan, which bettered its previous highest successful ODI chase of 274 made against United Arab Emirates nine years ago.

Meanwhile, many Afghans took to the streets in various cities in Afghanistan to celebrate the victory.

“I am very happy today that Afghanistan won against a major team in a major tournament. It is a happy moment. All of us youth go together and feel very happy,” said a resident of Khost.

“In the current moment the Afghans are living with, it is a great victory. I hope we have further victories for Afghanistan because the Afghans have suffered a lot,” said a resident of Kabul.