Hazratullah Zazai's knock of 162 runs off 62 deliveries will be remembered by every cricket fan for ages to come. He was very brutal with bowlers and everyone who bowled to him disappeared mostly towards the long on and mid wicket region. In the process, he registered second fastest century in the shorter format of the game. His knock of 162 runs included 16 sixes which is the highest number of sixes hit in the shorter format of the game.His score 162 runs is the second highest individual score in t20 internationals after Aaron Finch's 172.
It was a day where we saw records being broken and a lot of them being created as well. Hazratullah Zazai and his opening partner, Usman Ghani (73) put on a partnership of 236 runs which is the highest partnership for any wicket in all forms of t20 cricket. The previous best was 229 runs between Virat Kohli and A B de Villiers in IPL and 223 between Aaron Finch and D Arcy Short in a t20 international. Afghanistan's team total of 278 runs in the match is also the highest total in a t20 international scored by any team.
The Irish players were guilty of dropping Hazratullah Zazai when he was in 72. He made the most of the opportunity given to him and that drop proved very costly for Ireland. To add to the misery of Ireland, Usman Ghani also punished the bowlers along with Zazai. None of the Irish bowlers looked to be posing any threat to the Afghan batsmen who kept playing their shots.
Ireland came out all guns blazing as they had no choice but to start swinging from ball 1. Irish captain, Paul Stirling played an excellent innings of 96 runs and got good support from his opening partner, Kevin O Brien. The duo put up a partnership of 126 runs for the first wicket and we're scoring at a run rate of more than ten runs per over. In normal circumstances, it would have been a good run rate but Afghanistan had already put up a mammoth total on the board and Ireland needed to score at the rate of around 17 runs per over in the last ten overs. They eventually fell 84 runs short giving Afghanistan the series win.
For Afghanistan, it was the magician, Rashid Khan again who picked up four wickets giving away just 25 runs in his four overs. Rashid Khan became the first bowler to take 24 wickets against a particular opposition surpassing Shahid Afridi who had 21 wickets against a single opposition in t20's. With this win, Afghanistan now have nine consecutive wins in t20 internationals which is the joint second best with Pakistan.
I do see a lot of potential in Afghani players and they are one of the fastest growing teams in the history of world cricket. I believe that if they keep getting games against higher ranked oppositions they will improve more. Most of their quality players are young and they do have a very bright future if they keep playing like that.
Comments