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Asia Cup 2018: Mohammad Shahzad’s 124, Mohammad Nabi’s 64 help Afghanistan to cross 250-mark
By Sandy - Sep 25, 2018 10:02 pm
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Opener Mohammad Shahzad’s brilliant century and Mohammad Nabi’s important 64-run knock helped Afghanistan to manage a good fighting total of 252/8 (50 overs) on the board against India at Dubai International Cricket Stadium (Dubai) in the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup 2018.

Mohammad Shahzad

At the beginning of the day, the Indian camp surprised the cricket world as MS Dhoni returns to the international captaincy. However, Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan won the toss and decided to bat first.

Also read: MS Dhoni Is A Firm Believer Of Destiny

The Afghan opener and the wicketkeeper-batsman Mohammad Shahzad started the innings very well as he put a 65-run opening partnership along with another opener Javed Ahmadi, who only managed to score 5 runs before getting stumped out. During that opening partnership, Shahzad completed his half-century in just 37 balls.

When next few wickets were falling quickly from the other side as they went down from 65/0 to 82/4, Shahzad continued his dominant batting. Then, Shahzad put another important 50-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Gulbadin Naib. During that partnership, Shahzad completed his brilliant deserving fifth ODI century in just 88 balls.

Mohammad Shahzad

Also watch: Kuldeep Yadav Gets Two-in-two

After Naib lost his wicket on 15 runs, Shahzad provided another crucial 48-run partnership along with Mohammad Nabi for the sixth wicket. Finally, Shahzad was dismissed by Kedar Jadhav after scoring 124 runs 116 balls (11 fours and 7 sixes).

Indian cricket team

Another 46-run partnership was built by Nabi and Najibullah Zadran for the seventh wicket as Zadran scored 20 runs before getting out. Nabi completed his half-century in 45 balls and scored 64 runs off 56 balls (3 fours and 4 sixes) before Khaleel Ahmed dismissed him. At the end of 50 overs, Afghanistan scored 252/8.

Among the Indian bowlers, the left-arm spinner Ravindra Jadeja (3/46) picked up three wickets and the left-arm chinaman bowler Kuldeep Yadav (2/38) got two wickets. Also, the left-arm pacer Khaleel Ahmed (1/45), the debutant pacer Deepak Chahar (1/37) and the off-spinner Kedar Jadhav (1/27) took one wicket each.

Some key stats of the innings:

  • MS Dhoni came back to the leadership role in international cricket after 696 days.
  • At the age of 37 years and 80 days, MS Dhoni becomes India’s oldest ODI captain. The previous record holder was Mohammad Azharuddin who had led the Indian cricket team last time in ODI cricket at the age of 36 years and 124 days.
  • When Afghanistan was on 131/4, Mohammad Shahzad completed his century. It was the joint lowest team total in ODI history when a player completed his century. Earlier, Pakistan batsman Shahid Afridi completed his ODI century against India when Pakistan’s total was 131/0 (at Kanpur on April 15, 2005).
  • Afghanistan batsman Mohammad Shahzad scored 124 runs in this match. It is the third highest ODI knock by an Afghanistan batsman. The top two in this list are 131* by Mohammad Shahzad (against Zimbabwe at Sharjah on 29 December 2015) and 129 by Nawroz Mangal (against UAE at ICCA Dubai on 30 November 2014).
  • Afghanistan batsman Mohammad Shahzad (2,508 ODI runs) completed 2,500 runs in his ODI career. He becomes the first Afghanistan batsman to achieve this feat.

Here are some Twitter reactions:

Tags AfghanistanAsia Cup 2018Indian cricket teamMohammad ShahzadSuper Four

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