Two nights ago, Hassan Ali had correctly predicted the ending of the second ODI. During the third, he did an encore, this time for a Shaheen Shah Afridi wicket.

Chasing 301 in the second ODI, at Hambantota, Pakistan had slid to 211-6 before Shadab Khan (48 in 35 balls) took the battle into the last over. Pakistan needed 11, but Shadab, eager for a single, had left the crease too soon, and Fazalhaq Farooqi ran him out.

That brought No.11 Haris Rauf to the crease to join No.10 Naseem Shah. Naseem swung for four, missed the second ball, ran a single, and Haris sprinted a three, bringing the target to three in two balls.

During the over, Hassan Ali predicted he could “smell” that a an edge to the fence would help Pakistan win. Exactly that happened, much to the surprise of many: Naseem swung at the fifth ball, and the edge ran to the deep-third fence.

Two-up in the series, Pakistan posted 268-8 in the third ODI at the Premadasa Stadium in Colombo. In response, Afghanistan lost their way, and were left reeling at 97-7.

With little to play for, Mujeeb Ur Rahman played his shots, and hit five fours and five sixes to bring up the fastest ODI for Afghanistan, off only 26 balls. In all, he hit five fours and five sixes in his 63, scored off 37 balls.

During the 44th over, Hasan predicted that Shaheen Shah Afridi would strike in his next over.

I can feel @iShaheenAfridi will get wicket in his next over

— Hassan Ali 🇵🇰 (@RealHa55an) August 26, 2023

Shaheen had not taken a wicket in his first eight overs. Now he bowled his ninth, and five balls passed by. Then Mujeeb tried to flick the last ball and trod on to the stumps, and became the first Afghanistan batter to be out hit wicket in international cricket across formats.

Hassan struck gold twice in two matches before Shaheen rounded things off by clean bowling Farooqi in the 49th over to finish with 2-31. Pakistan won by 59 runs to sweep the series 3-0.