Afghanistan have beaten hosts United Arab Emirates (UAE) by 5 wickets in Match 6 of the Desert T20 Challenge 2017 at Abu Dhabi. With this win, Afghanistan go to the top of the table with 4 points from 2 matches. UAE are second with 1 win from their 2 games. Afghanistan were set a target of 147, thanks to a run-a-ball 52 from Samiullah Shenwari. But it was Dawlat Zadran with his 4 for 44 and Rashid Khan with figures of 2 for 12, who brought Afghanistan back into the game. UAE got off to a good start in their innings, but kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually fell well short of where they would have liked to be. They were staring at a score of close to 200, but did not even make 150 in the end.
As far as the Afghanistan innings was concerned, they too did not have any sort of momentum. Skipper Asghar Stanikzai and Samiullah Shenwari tried to build a substantial partnership after the openers departed early. They put on 52 for the third wicket, but that is as good as things got for Afghanistan. After Stanikzai was dismissed for 30, Afghanistan lost Mohammad Nabi soon after that. Shenwari added 30 with Karim Janat for the fifth wicket and took the side closer to the target. Despite his dismissal, Afghanistan were still very much in the game. They needed 20 from the final 2 overs.
UAE fast bowler Mohammad Shahzad bowled the penultimate over. Boundary off the very first delivery, put the pressure back on the bowler. Five wides in the next delivery did not help UAE’s cause.
Najibullah Zadran then struck a six off the fourth ball of the over, taking Afghanistan within 2 runs of a win. Afghanistan eventually won the match with 7 balls to spare, handing Afghanistan their second win in the competition.
Earlier, Afghanistan had won the toss and elected to field.
Brief Scores:
UAE 146 for 7 in 20 overs (Rohan Mustafa 29, Shaiman Anwar 52; Dawlat Zadran 4 for 44, Fareed Ahmad 1 for 31) lost to Afghanistan 147 for 5 in 18.5 overs (Asghar Stanikzai 30, Samiullah Shenwari 42; Ahmed Raza 2 for 18, Amjad Javed 1 for 10) by 5 wickets.
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