New Delhi, Feb 16 (.) Afghanistan stayed in contention for the Super Eight stage with a five-wicket win over UAE at the Arun Jaitley Stadium here on Monday.
An all-round performance from Azmatullah Omarzai helped Afghanistan to their first win of this World Cup campaign.
Afghanistan have climbed to No 3 in Group D, and are battling with New Zealand and UAE for the final qualification spot from their group. Having won their first three matches, South Africa are through.
After electing to field first, Afghanistan restricted UAE to 160/9 in 20 overs. It was touch and go, but Afghanistan chased down the target with four balls and five wickets to spare.
Junaid Siddique struck early for UAE, dismissing the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz on the
second ball of the innings. His incredible opening spell read 1/7 in two overs. They put on
41/2 in powerplay, but it has been a stop-start innings by Afghanistan.
Opener Ibrahim Zadran helped them recover from early wickets with a well-paced half-century.
He struck six fours and a six but fell just when it looked like they were getting a move on in their chase.
Omarzai, who had snapped four wickets, then dominated with the bat, hitting two fours and three sixes for an unbeaten 40 to take his team over the line.
Afghanistan bowlers were in form on Monday and gave the team the perfect start, claiming to early wickets to reduce UAE to 13/2.
Alishan Sharafu and Sohaib Khan mounted fightback with an 84-run partnership. While the in-form Sharafu scored 40, Sohaib was the standout performer with 68 off 48 balls, and carted the ball for six fours and four sixes.
However, the innings couldn’t gain traction once Sharafu was back in the pavilion. From 97/3, UAE crashed to 160/9 in 20 overs. Pacer Omarzai pegged UAE back with timely wickets, finishing with an incredible 4/15. Mujeeb Ur Rahman also claimed the important wickets of Sharafu and captain Muhammad Waseem.
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