Afghanistan laid down an ominous marker for other sides in the ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier 2015 with a devastating display of exuberant batting against Scotland in the Grange.
With the likes of Mohammad Shahzad, Asghar Stanakzai, Najibullah Zadran, Shafiqullah Shafiq and others in their ranks, the Afghans have an intimidating line-up of ferocious and skilful hitters. Three wins from three now puts them on their own atop Group B with the potentially difficult Scotland, Netherlands and UAE MATCHES safely negotiated
Afghanistan go 3 from 3 in Group B as well as recording their highest ever T20I total
Charismatic OPENER Shahzad had set Afghanistan off to a fantastic start in front of a good attendance in the Grange, a crowd that included a large number of vociferous Afghan supporters. Anything pitched up to the 27-year-old wicketkeeper-batsman disappeared over the sightscreens and anything short was punished square of the wicket as he raced to 75 off 36 deliveries.
A pivotal 12th over, bowled by Con de Lange, saw Shahzad caught on the boundary and the captain, Asghar Stanakzai (34) run out, which briefly put a different complexion on the innings
After a short period of consolidation, normal service soon RESUMED, however, as Samiullah Shenwari (19 off 12 balls) and then Najibullah (37 off 21) and Mohammad Nabi (33 off 18) pushed Afghanistan towards a mammoth 210-5, the highest total of the tournament so far and Afghanistan’s best in all T20Is to date.
Shahzad had clearly decided to go after the spinners from the off and latch on to anything over-pitched.
“Yes, this is my plan. I am waiting for anything loose and then I want to smash it out of the ground. It is quite a short boundary here and I was able to use the wind to my advantage also. I was talking to Asghar and he was saying to me ‘you can go and hit every ball and I will give you the strike’.
“Najib, Samiullah and Shafikullah and others – we have plenty of dangerous batsmen on our team. Our plan is to give the first 10 to 12 overs to the first three batsmen. Then they get the licence to go and try to kill the bowling. If it comes off, great, if not then there are more batsmen down the ORDER who can come in and hit boundaries. Today our plan worked and we are very pleased with how we played.”
Faced with a required run-rate of more than 10 runs per over, Scotland were always going to be under pressure. Matthew Cross (37 off 22 balls), Richie Berrington (20 off 15) and Preston Mommsen (44 off 20) did threaten to crash the Afghan party for a while but in the end it was not nearly enough as Scotland was beaten by 37 runs
