Afghanistan Get Off the Mark with a Scratchy Win Over UAE

Afghanistan have opened their account in the ongoing edition of the Men’s T20 World Cup with a hard-fought win against the UAE courtesy of a half-century by Ibrahim Zadran and an all-round performance by Azmatullah Omarzai.

Contents

The Start

Opting to bowl first after winning the toss, Afghanistan picked up the wickets of UAE openers Aryansh Sharma and Muhammad Waseem with 13 runs on the board. The Rashid Khan-led side would have thought of registering a big win by restricting the opposition to a below-par total after the kind of start that it got. However, Sohaib Khan and Alishan Sharafu had other plans as the duo added 84 runs for the third wicket, with the former notching up a half-century and was well supported by Aryansh, who scored 40 runs off 31 balls to take the team’s score to 97 for 3 in 11.1 overs.

The Comeback

As UAE was looking set to post an above-par total on the board, Afghanistan struck back by picking four wickets in the next 24 runs, thereby reducing the opposition from 97 for 2 to 121 for 6. The comeback was led by Mujeeb Ur Rahman, who picked up two wickets in the match. The good performance delivered by Mujeeb was carried forward by captain Rashid Khan, who bowled economically and managed to pick up a wicket, completing 700 T20 wickets in the process.

The Restriction

Azmatullah Omarazi was the pick of the bowlers for Afghanistan as he picked up four wickets after conceding just 15 runs, and played an important role in restricting UAE to a total of 160 runs.

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The Chase

Chasing 161 runs to bat, Afghanistan lost the first wicket in the first over without a run on the board as in-form batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz was caught in an attempt to take on the bowler. However, the loss of Gurbaz’s wicket did not have much of an impact on his partner, Ibrahim Zadran. The opening batter made up for the slow start by scoring a much needed half century.

The Partnership

Zadran was able to hold one end and stitched vital partnerships with Gulbadin Naib, Sediqullah Atal and Darwish Rasooli, helping the team get close to the target. But as was the case in UAE’s batting, Afghanistan lost way in the middle overs, with the bowling team picking up wickets at crucial intervals.

The Final Act

UAE’s comeback saw every bowler keeping things tight in the final five overs, which kept the team in the game. Having said that, the lack of runs on the board meant that Afghanistan needed only one partnership of 15-20 runs to get over the line, and that’s exactly what Azmatullah Omarzai, who played an unbeaten knock of 40 runs off 212 balls, and Mohammad Nabi did by adding 21 runs for the sixth wicket to get off the mark.