Asia Cup Cricket: Pak post 248/8 against Afghan, Akmal hits ton

 An unconquered century by Umar Akmal guided the defending champion Pakistan to post 248 runs against newcomer Afghanistan in the match of the five-nation Asia Cup Cricket at Fatullah Khan Saheb Osman Ali Stadium on Thursday.
Sent into bat first, Pakistan scored 248 runs for eight wickets in stipulated 50 overs with Umar Akmal hammering an unconquered century scoring 102 runs from 89 deliveries hitting seven fours and three sixes.
In the 7th wicket stand Umar Akmal (38) contributed the 60 runs partnership paring with Anwar Ali (21) in their 13.1 overs to make the team total score of 177 in 42.4 overs.
Earlier, in the first wicket stand, Ahmed Shehzad (28) and Sharjeel Khan (25) posted a 55-run partnership in 12.3 overs.
Opener Ahmed Shehzad contributed 50 runs off 74 balls with 7 boundaries while another opener Sharjeel Khan scored 25 runs off 37 balls with two fours and a six before he was caught by Noor Ali Zadran off a Hamza Hotak delivery.
Umar Gul made 15 runs, Sohaib Maqsood scored 13 runs, one down Mohammad Hafeez caught by Mohammad Nabi off a Mirwais Ashraf delivery scoring 10 runs while Skipper Misbah-ul-Haq went to the dressing room with zero run.
Saeed Ajmal remained not out with 1 run.
Mirwais Ashraf, Samiullah Shinwari and Dawlat Zadran claimed two wickets each for 29, 34 and 73 runs respectively while Hamza Hotak bagged one wicket for 22 runs.