Sahibzada Farhan hit a solid half-century while spinner Usman Tariq claimed three wickets as Pakistan defeated the United States by 32 runs in their ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2026 Group A match in Colombo on Tuesday.
The 29-year-old Farhan smashed five sixes and six fours in his 41-ball 73, supported by Babar Azam’s brilliant 32-ball 46, which included four fours and one six at the Sinhalese Sports Club ground.
Farhan surpassed 1,000 T20 international runs in his 41st match before being caught in the covers off spinner Harmeet Singh in the 16th over.
Pakistan’s next game is against arch-rivals India in Colombo on Sunday, a match only cleared by the Pakistan government on Monday after initially announcing a boycott.
“We’ll go in with the same mindset
as we did in our previous matches against India, including the Asia Cup. We’ll try to stay positive and play attacking cricket,” Sahibzada Farhan said after being awarded the ‘Player of the Match’.
“The way we practiced yesterday, the ball was coming onto my bat really well in the nets. I had already told our batting coach (Hanif Malik) yesterday that I was getting a good feeling for today’s match,” he said.
“I was confident. I even said, I will finish the match in a way that earns me the player-of-the-match award. I’ve set a personal target for myself, to win at least two to three player-of-the-match awards in this World Cup,” Sahibzada Farhan added.
Pakistan ‘Do Things Differently’?
This win avenged Pakistan’s shocking defeat to the USA in the T20 World Cup two years ago and marked their second victory in as many games, following a close three-wicket win over the Netherlands on Saturday.
“We are Pakistan, we do things differently to the world,” Pakistan captain Salman Agha said after the win.
“It was a clinical performance as we batted really well to post 190 and we knew we could defend that. There is always room for improvement, we’d like to bowl better in the powerplay before the next game,” he added.
(With inputs from Agencies)
