SHAHZAD TON BOOSTS AFGHANISTAN’S TOTAL
Mohammad Shahzad Mohammadi breathed life into an otherwise inconsequential Asia Cup match against India on Tuesday with a powerpacked 124 to lift Afghanistan to 252 for 8.
The 30-year-old, pot-bellied opening batsman punched above his weight in bringing up his fifth OneDay International (ODI) hundred.
Playing in his 70th match, Shahzad almost single-handedly flayed the Indian attack to all parts of the Dubai International Cricket Stadium during his 116-ball stay at the crease. And, during that time he entertained the sparse spectators, mostly Indians, with 11 fours and seven sixes. Later Mohammad Nabi chanced his arms around for a blistering 56-ball 64 which was peppered with three fours and four big sixes. These two knocks ensured Afghanistan reached a defendable total against a secondstring Indian line-up.
The Men In Blue made five changes to the squad that thumped Pakistan on Sunday. Captain Rohit Sharma was rested. In his absence Mahendra Singh Dhoni was given the armband. It turned out to be a milestone for MSD as he was captaining the side for the 200th time.
India also rested the tournament’s top scorer Shikhar Dhawan, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Jasprit Bumrah and Yuzvendra Chahal, while Deepak Chahar made his ODI debut. Nerves, however, got the better of the 26-year-old in just his second over after Asghar Afghan won the toss and decided that Afghanistan would take first strike.
The right-arm pacer bowled a beamer for which he was warned, and then bowled two wide deliveries. Shahzad rubbed further salt into his wounds by clobbering him for a six and a four in the same over. Afghanistan were cruising nicely when India finally got the breakthrough in the 12th over after Ravindra Jadeja enticed Javed Ahmadi out of his crease for Dhoni to do the rest. The partnership lasted 65 runs, of which Ahmadi’s contribution was only 5.
Jadeja struck again when he beat Rahmat Shah through bat and pad to find his stumps. At the other end Kuldeep Yadav cast his spell on Hashmatullah Shahidi (0) and captain Asghar Afghan (0) but was denied a hat trick by Gulbadin Naib.
While the other bastmen struggled to put bat to ball, making it look as if there was some devil in the wicket, Shahzad dispelled all those myths by playing with gay abandon. A flurry of fours and sixes from the short-statured batsman saw his team reach the 100run mark in 19 overs. A few balls later Shahzad reached his 100 with a flick down the leg side from Chahar. He and Gulbadin Naib raised 50 runs for the fifth wicket but the latter holed out to Kedar Jadhav in the deep to give Deepak his first ODI wicket.
The Indian bowlers — mainly Jadeja (3-46) and Kuldeep (2-48) — did keep things tight in the middle overs but Shahzad looked in a murderous mood. Luckily for India part-time bowler Kedar Jadhav brought about his end.
If India thought they could breathe easy now they were mistaken as Mohammad Nabi put them to the sword with a quickfire 64 from 56 balls which was studded with four sixes and three fours to give his side a whiff of an upset over India.