Match Report Desert T20 Challenge
Oman and Afghanistan both won their matches comprehensively with huge margin. On day 3 of Desert T20 Challenge 2017, in opening match Oman beat Hong Kong by 7 wickets. While in the evening match Afghani team won their match by 5 wickets against host in 19th over.
In 5th match of the competition Hong Kong was bundled out at 87 in 19th over by fantastic bowling by Oman. After winning the toss Oman opted to field first and they succeeded to get desired results. Hong Kongs’ three batsmen could cross double figures mark. Aizaz Khan made only 19 runs while other two were Christopher Carter (17) and Ehsan Khan (10). Oman used their five bowlers and they were all among wickets at the end of innings. However Bilal Khan (3 for 18), Khawar Ali (2 for 12) and Kaleemullah (2 for 23) were standout bowlers for Oman.
At the half way stage it was sure that Hong Kong will be on the losing side. But their hopes were raised when Arun Poulse bowled out on 3rd ball of second innings by Nadeem Ahmed. Soon their hope were scattered when Aqib Ilyas started to play his shots, he went unbeaten on 56 off 30 balls. On the other hand he saw two more wickets to fall around him Zeeshan Maqsood 15 off 18 and Khawar Ali 13 off 9 was enough to chase down this small total in 11 overs.
Bilal Khan was awarded as a player of the match on his match winning bowling spell.
In 6th Match Afghanistan opted to bat bowl first after winning the toss. Although they had very tough time up till second ball of the fourteenth over. When Ghulam Shabir finds himself out on bowling of Dawlat Zadran on his personal score of 20. At that particular time U.A.E team (101 for 2 in 13.1 overs) was in a perfect scenario of posting a huge total, but it was all about Afghanistan’s superb bowling U.A.E could only manage to score 146 runs. They managed to get 45 runs in remaining 41 balls with the loss of 5 wickets. Only in form Shaiman Anwer was their top performer who made run a ball 52.
Dawlat Zadran finished his job with 4 for 44 at an expensive economy rate, but he took few more wickets to help Afghanistan in dragging back them. However Rashid Khan once again remained their asset who came up with an economical spell of 12 for 2 in his four overs.
Afghanistan’s chase was well supported by a huge crowd present at Abu Dhabi’s Shaikh Zaid Cricket Stadium. They had two early dents in chasing 147 after 14 balls, when they lose two quick wickets. At 16 runs their both openers were back in dug-out Mohammad Shahzad 15 off 12 and Najeeb Tarakai 0 off 2 balls. It was being assumed by U.A.E players that they might win this match from now. However Asghar and Samiullah put 52 runs partnership gave Afghanistan strength back in the game. Asghar made 30 and Samiullah Shinwari 42 runs. This match had another twist when Samiullah’s wicket went down in 17th over on 114 left Afghanistan 33 runs behind. But Karim Janat and Najibullah Zadran finished the job on fifth ball of 19th over.
By winning this match Afghanistan cemented their place in Semi Final. Now they can find themselves out of competition if they will lose their third group match badly. Dawlat Zadran was awarded as a player of the match.
