Afghanistan beat Scotland Highlights: Afghanistan beat Scotland

Afghanistan beat Scotland Highlights: Riding on superb batting performance by Najibullah Zadran followed by 5 wicket haul by Mujeeb Ur Rahman and 4-wicket haul by Rashid Khan helped Afghanistan beat Scotland by 130 runs in their first match of the ICC T20 World Cup here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah on Monday.

Youngster Mujeeb was the star of the show with the ball, taking three in an over and finishing with a five-for, the best ever return for a bowler on T20 World Cup debut.

Earlier Najibullah Zadran top-scored with a sparkling 59 as his side reached 190/4, Afghanistan’s highest T20 World Cup score. Afghanistan got off to a fast start after winning the toss and opting to bat, with openers Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad finding the boundary repeatedly in a 54-run partnership through the Powerplay. Shahzad fell to Safyaan Sharif in the sixth over, holing out to deep mid-wicket.

And Zazai’s dangerous knock came to an abrupt end at the midway point of the Afghanistan innings, as he failed to connect well with a swipe across the line and was bowled by Mark Watt for 44 off 30. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Najib picked up where the openers left off, with the teenager Gurbaz in sparkling form, hitting four sixes in his 46 off 37.

Gurbaz’s aggressive knock was finally halted by Josh Davey in the penultimate over, but Najib and skipper Mohammad Nabi went big at the death, with the captain hitting 11 off just four balls. And Najib fell to the final ball of the innings, caught on the boundary for 59 off just 34 balls.

Left-arm spinner Watt finished the pick of the bowlers for Scotland, with his wicket coming at the cost of just 23 runs in four overs, with Safyaan Sharif also impressive with 2-33.

Scotland’s chase got off to a lightning start as George Munsey reverse swept Nabi for four off the second ball, reverse sweeping for six the very next delivery.

But Scotland’s hopes of reaching the daunting 191 to win all but disappeared in the fourth over, when Mujeeb removed Kyle Coetzer and Calum MacLeod in consecutive deliveries, before picking up Richie Berrington with the last ball of the over.

Scotland were five wickets down before Rashid Khan even got the ball in his hand, and the Afghanistan talisman bagged his first wicket with his third delivery, trapping Michael Leask plumb in front.

The magnificent Mujeeb finished with figures of 5/20 off his four overs, while Rashid rounded it off in style, taking 4.9 off just 14 balls.

Afghanistan Innings 190/4 (20 ov)

Batsmen		R	B	4S	6S	SR
Hazratullah Zazai	b MRJ Watt	44	30	3	3	146.67
Mohammad Shahzad (WK)	c CN Greaves b SM Sharif	22	15	2	1	146.67
Rahmanullah Gurbaz	c KJ Coetzer b JH Davey	46	37	1	4	124.32
Najibullah Zadran	c BTJ Wheal b SM Sharif	59	34	5	3	173.53
Mohammad Nabi (C)	Not out	11	4	2	0	275.00
Extra	8 (b 0, w 5, nb 0, lb 3)
Total	190/4 (20)
Yet To Bat	Asghar Afghan, Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

BOWLING	O	R	W	ECON
Brad Wheal	4	42	0	10.50
Michael Leask	1	18	0	18.00
Safyaan Sharif	4	33	2	8.25
Josh Davey	4	41	1	10.25
Mark Watt	4	23	1	5.75
Chris Greaves	3	30	0	10.00

Fall Of Wickets	FOW	Over
Mohammad Shahzad	1-54	5.5
Hazratullah Zazai	2-82	9.5
Rahmanullah Gurbaz	3-169	18.3
Najibullah Zadran	4-190	19.6

Scotland Innings 60/10 (10.2 ov)

Batsmen		R	B	4S	6S	SR
George Munsey	b Mujeeb Ur Rahman	25	18	2	2	138.89
Kyle Coetzer (C)	b Mujeeb Ur Rahman	10	7	2	0	142.86
Calum MacLeod	lbw b Mujeeb Ur Rahman	0	1	0	0	0.00
Richie Berrington	lbw b Mujeeb Ur Rahman	0	3	0	0	0.00
Matthew Cross (WK)	c Mohammad Shahzad b Naveen-ul-Haq	0	1	0	0	0.00
Michael Leask	lbw b Rashid Khan	0	5	0	0	0.00
Chris Greaves	lbw b Rashid Khan	12	12	1	0	100.00
Mark Watt	b Mujeeb Ur Rahman	1	3	0	0	33.33
Josh Davey	lbw b Rashid Khan	4	7	0	0	57.14
Safyaan Sharif	Not out	3	4	0	0	75.00
Brad Wheal	b Rashid Khan	0	1	0	0	0.00
Extra	5 (b 0, w 3, nb 0, lb 2)
Total	60/10 (10.2)

BOWLING	O	R	W	ECON
Mohammad Nabi	1	11	0	11.00
Mujeeb Ur Rahman	4	20	5	5.00
Naveen-ul-Haq	2	12	1	6.00
Rashid Khan	2.2	9	4	3.86
Karim Janat	1	6	0	6.00

Fall Of Wickets	FOW	Over
KJ Coetzer	1-28	3.2
CS MacLeod	2-28	3.3
RD Berrington	3-28	3.6
MH Cross	4-30	4.3
HG Munsey	5-36	5.3
MA Leask	6-38	6.3
MRJ Watt	7-45	7.5
CN Greaves	8-53	8.5
JH Davey	9-60	10.1
BTJ Wheal	10-60	10.2

Toss Report

Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and opted to bat first against Scotland in their first match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2021 here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Sharjah on Monday. Scotland are coming into this game after winning in the Group stage matches. Since WT20 2016, Afghanistan have won 82.61% of their matches batting first – no other Full Member side have a higher win % batting first. AFG batting 1st since WT20 2016: 23 mat | 19 wins | 4 losses

Teams

Afghanistan (Playing XI): Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad(w), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Asghar Afghan, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi(c), Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman

Scotland (Playing XI): George Munsey, Kyle Coetzer(c), Matthew Cross(w), Richie Berrington, Calum MacLeod, Michael Leask, Chris Greaves, Mark Watt, Josh Davey, Safyaan Sharif, Bradley Wheal

Both team captains at the toss

Kyle Coetzer | Scotland skipper: Very happy with that, we were gonna bowl first. Even in IPL, we saw chasing teams having that advantage so really happy. The boys got a chance to enjoy themselves, but in our mind, we believe that we can make it through that group stage and really privileged to be here. We haven’t made any changes. The team has been performing well and at the moment we are comfortable sticking to the same team (that did well in the group stages)

Mohammad Nabi | Afghanistan skipper: We will bat first. The wicket is dry so we will try and put runs on the board and defend it. The pitch looks good for batting and we will try to restrict them.

Pitch Report by Anjum Chopra and Bazid Khan

“A high scoring game yesterday. The surface today has a few patches of brown, and the other aspect on this pitch is dimensions so you expect the batsmen to target the shorter side. It’s not just about the pitch, but it’s also about match-ups”

Cricket