Following Afghanistan’s defeat in the T20 match against Pakistan in Dubai on Friday, top Taliban leader, Anas Haqqani, patted his team on the shoulder by reacting in a “poetic” manner.

To buck up the Afghan cricket team, Haqqani tweeted a line from a  famous Urdu poetry by Mirza Azeem Baig Chughtai: “Girte hain shahsawar hi maidan-e-jang mein. Wo tifl kyaa girega jo ghutnoo ke bal chalay.”

Asif Ali smashed four sixes in the penultimate over to help Pakistan achieve a hard-fought five-wicket win over Afghanistan in the Twenty20 World Cup in Dubai.

With Pakistan needing 24 runs off the final two overs, Asif lifted paceman Karim Janat’s first, third, fifth and sixth balls over the boundary to help Pakistan overhaul a tricky 148-run target.

Asif finished with 25 off just seven balls with four sixes and a single, leaving Janat and all the other Afghan players frustrated.

The win gave Pakistan a third win in as many games in Group 2 of the Super 12 stages, almost assuring a semi-final place, needing just one more win from their last two games.

Afghanistan scored a fighting 147-6 in their 20 overs with Gulbadin Naib and skipper Mohammad Nabi each scoring 35.

— Additional input from AFP