Afghanistan start their World Cup mission with an emphatic 130 runs victory over Scotland as they completely outplayed their opponents.
Chasing a target of 191, the Scottish top order had no answer to the spin from Mujeeb Ur Rahman as the canny spinner spun a spin web around the Scotland top order picking up 3 wickets bowling his 2nd over on the 4th over of the innings.
Mujeeb sent back Kyle Coetzer, Calcum Berrington, and Richie Berrington giving away just 1 run.
Mujeeb’s 4 wickets for 14 runs and Naveen-ul-Haq’s lone wicket meant that Coetzer and his men were already 5 down inside of the powerplay. Rashid Khan could not even get a chance to complete his quota of four overs.
After the powerplay, usual proceedings commenced as Mujeeb picked up another wicket on his last over finishing with career-best and man-of-the-match bowling figures in T20Is of 5/20. Rashid Khan on the other hand took care of the lower order finishing with figures of 4/9 in 2.2 overs.
As Scotland was bowled out for 60, their total also equalled the 4th lowest team total in the history of the T20 World Cup and Scotland’s lowest ever T20Is.
Earlier winning the toss and choosing to bat first, the Afghans reached a mammoth total of 190 with the loss of 4 wickets at the end of their 20 overs.
Afghanistan openers Hazratullah Zazai and Mohammad Shahzad gave their innings a flying start scoring 55 runs at the loss of 1 wicket at the end of the powerplay.
Zazai scored 44 runs off 30 balls, an innings that consisted of 3 fours and 3 sixes and 22 runs came from Shahzad’s bat from 15 balls.
As Afghanistan lost the openers with 82 runs on the board, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Najibullah Zadran put together a partnership of 87 runs.
A partnership that was composed of towering sixes accompanied by fierce fours with Zadran being aggressive of the two-- scored 59 runs from 34 balls with 5 fours and 3 sixes.
Gurbaz’s innings ended at 46 off 37 balls based upon 1 four and 4 sixes. In the end, a couple of boundaries from Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi helped Afghanistan to reach a total of 190.
The winning margin of 130 runs from Afghanistan is their biggest win in T20Is in terms of run margin as they kick off their World Cup mission in style.
