SHARJAH – Afghanistan beat the United Arab Emirates (UAE) by four runs in the last-ball thriller of the T20I Tri-Series at Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Friday.
Chasing a decent 171-run target for victory, the hosts managed to reach 166/5 in the allocated 20 overs.
Fareed Ahmed kept his nerve in the second half of the last over despite conceding 12 runs in the first three balls. He dismissed Asif Khan on the last ball after bowling two dot balls to hand Afghanistan a four-run victory.
UAE skipper Muhammad Waseem was the top scorer with 44, followed by Asif Khan, who made 40. Alishan contributed 27, Muhammad Zohaib 23, and Harshit Kaushik, unbeaten 15. Fareed Ahmad, Mujeebur Rehman, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Noor Ahmad and Abdollah Ahmadzai claimed one wicket each.
After winning the toss and opting to bat first, Afghanistan reached 170/4 in the allocated 20 overs. Player of the match Ibrahim Zardan, who captained the team in the absence of Rashid Khan, was the top scorer with 48 runs off 35 balls.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 40 off 38 balls, and Karim Janat 28 off 20 balls, while Gulbadin Naib and Azmatullah Omarzai remained not out on 20 and 14 runs respectively. Haider Ali bagged two wickets while Simranjeet Singh and Muhammad Farooq got one wicket each.
Afghanistan Playing XI: Rahmanullah Gurbaz (wk), Ibrahim Zadran (c), Karim Janat, Azmatullah Omarzai, Noor Ahmad, Gulbadin Naib, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Mohammad Ishaq, Mujeeb-Ur-Rahman, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Abdullah Ahmadzai
UAE Playing XI: Muhammad Waseem (c), Muhammad Zohaib, Asif Khan, Alishan Sharafu, Rahul Chopra (wk), Harshit Kaushik, Haider Ali, Muhammad Farooq, Muhammad Rohid, Junaid Siddique, Simranjeet Singh
