Dominant Afghanistan bounce back with win against UAE

Rashid Khan took a three-wicket haul after Sadiqullah Atal and Ibrahin Zadran smacked blitzkrieg fifties as Afghanistan defeated UAE by 38 runs in their second match of the tri-series in Sharjah on Monday.

Muhammad Waseem and Ethan D’Souza kindled a brief optimism with a fighting 61-run partnership for the second wicket after an early departure of Muhammad Zohaib.

Waseem played another nervy innings to lead the fightback and keep the chase alive. In the 61-run stand D’Souza contributed only 12 runs.

Waseem, who is accustomed to playing big knocks and carrying the burden alone on his shoulder, was again in the thick of the action. He belted a blitzkrieg fifty sprinkled with six sixes and five fours.

Waseem sprinted to his fifty in just 25 balls to keep the UAE hopes alive.

D’Souza and Waseem kept the Afghanistan bowlers at bay. The tension was building up in the Afghan camp.

When all the other bowlers failed to break the partnership, captain Rashid Khan himself took the charge and broke the dangerous-looking partnership by trapping D’Souza.

Soon after the dismissal of D’ Souza, Waseem was sent back by Sharafuddin Ashraf, who is renowned for taking the wickets of top-order batsmen.

UAE were three down for 90 at half the way mark.

Needing another 99 runs in the remaining ten overs, UAE needed someone to play a big knock. All eyes were on the last match hero Asif Khan. But he failed to deliver and became the second victim of wily Afghan spinner Rashid.

Afghanistan used four spinners and two pacers only with Omarzai playing as all-rounder which means Fazalhaq Farooqi was the only genuine pacer.

UAE kept on losing the wickets in quick succession as they were reduced to 111/5 from 90/2. They had lost the match well before the results were made official as their innings petered out after a promising start.

The fragile middle-order did not even try to wage a battle as the match panned out as expected.

Last five batsmen could not breach the double-figure mark. Rashid completed his three-wicket haul with the dismissal of Dhruv Parashar while Ashraf bagged two. Rahul Chopra scored a fighting 52 off 35 balls, which went in vain.

Earlier, UAE failed to capitalise on the good start. After Mohd Rohid had sent opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz back with just 16 runs on the board, UAE had a chance to press the throttle harder and take one, two more wickets to tighten the grip.

Sediqullah Atal and Ibrahim Zadran batted with due diligence and shared an 84-run stand to anchor the innings. They trod cautiously, played patiently and attacked vigorously to build a match-winning partnership.

Afghanistan batters Zadran and Atal changed the gears in the ninth over. Atal began the carnage as he dispatched Ali for a six off the last ball to take 11 runs off it.

The carnage continued for next four overs which turned out to be equally destructive for the UAE and constructive for Afghanistan as they ran a run riot.

Saghir Khan broke the partnership with the dismissal of Atal, who smashed a quick-fire 40-ball 54. Saghir got the ball to move away from the batter, who only managed to nick it away to the wicket-keeper as Afghanistan were two down. But the damage had been done.

Azmatullah Omarzai and Zadran combined to take the innings forward after Darwish Rasooli was out cheaply. They spoiled the bowling figure of Junaid, collecting 17 runs off him in his third over, before that he had conceded only 12 in his first two combined.

In the next over, Omarzai hit Saghir for a six off the first ball and took a single to put the pressure on the bowler. But the UAE pacer made a comeback and got rid of the dangerman Zadran.

Zadran sliced it to the short third man in an attempt to play it over the top on the off side. He failed to get hold of the shot and Junaid completed a clean catch.

Karim Janat chipped in with a blistering cameo of 10-ball 23, hitting two sixes and as many boundaries to propel the score to a fighting 188/4.

Afghanistan made one change to their playing eleven as they brought in Sharafuddin Ashraf in place of Fareed Ahmed.

UAE dropped Alishan Sharafu and gave debut to Harshit Kaushik.