Zadran, Rasooli lead Afghanistan to 38-run victory over Windies in T20 series opener

A record-breaking third-wicket stand between Ibrahim Zadran and Darwish Rasooli led Afghanistan to a commanding 38-run win over West Indies on Monday in the first Twenty20 of their three-match series.

Zadran made a career-best unbeaten 87 off 56 balls and Rasooli scored 84 off 59 balls as they combined in a 162-run stand in a strong total of 181-3.

The West Indies top-order struggled against the experienced spin duo of Rashid Khan (2-19) and Mujeeb Ur Rahman (2-29) before cameos from debutant Quentin Sampson (30) and Gudakesh Motie (28) carried them to 143-9.

The series is part of the teams’ build-up for next month’s T20 World Cup with West Indies yet to finalize its squad for the mega event to be jointly hosted by India and Sri Lanka.

“As long as we are bringing our best skills to the game, it doesn’t matter whether we bat first or second,” Afghanistan captain Rashid said. “As a team, we are fit and hopefully we will have a good World Cup.”

West Indies made a promising start when Rahmanullah Gurbaz was run out on the first ball and captain Brandon King took a spectacular one-handed catch of Sediqullah Atal in the slips as Afghanistan slipped to 2-19 in the third over.

But Zadran and Rasooli then raised Afghanistan’s highest-ever third-wicket partnership in T20s off 113 balls against some wayward West Indies bowling.

Motie stemmed the flow of runs briefly in the middle overs with his economical four-over spell of 0-18, but both Afghan batters showed plenty of aggression against pace in the second half of the innings.

West Indies was also scrappy in the outfield and dropped at least three catches in the death overs as Zadran and Rasooli upped the ante and scored 70 runs in the last six overs. Fast bowlers Matthew Forde and Shamar Joseph gave away 91 runs in their eight overs while left-arm spinner Khary Pierre (0-42) was also expensive.

Forde had a consolation wicket on the final ball when Rasooli holed out in the outfield after striking eight boundaries and two sixes.

West Indies stumbled to 3-42 inside the power play when Mujeeb clean bowled King in the first over; Rasooli held on to Evin Lewis’ top-edge in the outfield and Johnson Charles was out lbw while attempting a switch hit against Mujeeb’s quicker delivery.

Rashid then made an immediate impact by grabbing two wickets in his successive overs that included the key wicket of Shimron Hetmyer, who scored only three off seven balls, as West Indies further slipped to 5-50 in the ninth over.

Sampson and Forde (25) combined in the best West Indies partnership of 45 before fast bowler Ziaur Rahman, who conceded 16 runs off his first four balls, claimed two wickets in his return spell and finished with 3-36.

“We are disappointed to lose the game,” King said. “We showed glimpses of good cricket but it wasn’t good enough. Afghanistan are a team that have quite a few good spinners, we will talk about it on the day off and review the game.”

The next two games will be played on Wednesday on Thursday.

Associated Press