Sharjah: Afghanistan opened their account in the Super 12,Group 2 of the ongoing ICC World T20 with a mammoth victory of 130 runs over Scotland in Sharjah on Monday.
After hammering their way to 190/4 batting first, Afghanistan spinners Mujeeb-Ur- Rahman(5/20) and Rashid Khan(4/9) ran havoc packing Scotland batting line up for a mere 60 to announce their arrival in some style.
Youngster Mujeeb registered his career best figures in the shortest format while joining the list for taking 5 wickets in an innings with the likes of Umar Gul,Rangana Herath, Ajanta Mendis and Lasith Malinga. This victory is quite significant for the Afghans as being the win with biggest margin in their history of T20 cricket while also being the third overall by any side.
Earlier, Hazratullah Zazai(44) and Mohammad Shahzad(22) gave Afghans a blistering start smashing 55 runs for the opening stand to set the tone up for the game before the later fell to Sharyaan Sharif. The pace dropped a bit after that, as Rahmanullah Gurbaz started steading the ship and with opener Zazai getting dismissed for a well made 44.
However, Najibullah Zadran went berserk after a steady to start to his innings smashing every Scottish bowlers out of the park for breezy 34 ball 59 which pretty much propelled the Afghan innings. Gurbaz and Najibullah added 87 run stand powering their side to mammoth total.
In reply, Scottish batting line up was unable to withstand the spin duo of Mujeeb and Rashid. George Munsey(25) was the top scorer while besides him skipper Kyle Coetzer(10) and Chris Greaves(12) were the only batters to see double digits.
Afghanistan 190/4(Najibullah Zadran 59,Rahmanullah Gurbaz 46; Shafyaan Sharif 3/33) beat Scotland 60 all-out in 10.2 overs( George Munsey 25, Mujeeb – Ur – Rahman 4/20, Rashid Khan 4/9) by 130 runs.
