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Nagpur: Afghanistan have cruised to a dominating 14-run win against Scotland in the ICC World T20 2016, 2nd qualifier at Nagpur on Tuesday.
Scotland had done well in the first nine overs or so, but started falling apart after the initial wicket of opener Kyle Coetzer.
Coetzer was dismissed for a 27-ball 40 by Samiullah Shenwari in the 9th over. In the very next over, Rashid Khan dismissed George Munsey for a 29-ball 41. The batsmen did well against fast bowlers, but were ordinary against spin bowlers.
Rashid, Shenwari, Mohammad Nabi and Amir Hamza, all played their roles in strangling the life out of Scotland after the halfway mark in the game.
The Scotland batsmen fell in a heap after the initial onslaught. After the fall of the openers, no batsman showed the aptitude to tackle the spin bowlers on a pitch offering assistance.
Calum MacLeod was the third wicket to fall, going for two runs to his name, getting run out. Matt Machan tried to hang in there with the hope to accelerate later but the acceleration never transpired.
Richard Berrington was dismissed for a 10-ball eight by Rashid, stumped by Mohammad Shahzad.
Machan was joined in his late struggle by skipper Preston Mommsen, who also seemed to delay the acceleration too much.
They kept nudging away the singles, but the bowlers managed to dry up the flow of boundaries. Finally, after a painful wait, Machan smashed a six off Dawlat Zadran in the 18th over. From the last two overs, Scotland required 27 runs.
Skipper Stanikzai then turned to the experience of Nabi, and the offie did not disappoint. He bowled with typical precision and did not provide any blatant boundary opportunities. The pressure took its toll on batsman Machan, who perished for a valiant 31-ball 36. He conceded just six runs, leaving Scotland a very improbable 21 to score off the final over.
Earlier, Mohammad Shahzad was the mastermind of the innings with a crushing 39-ball 61. Things started well for Afghanistan, with both openers — Shahzad and Noor Ali Zadran — taking the attack to the bowlers.
However, Alasdair Evans managed to bowl smartly enough to get Noor dismissed. For a while, Shahzad and Asghar Stanikzai looked to build a partnership sedately. In the powerplay period, Afghanistan reached a score of 41 for 1.
Shahzad declared man of the match.
Brief scores
Afghanistan - 170 for 5 (Shahzad 61, Stanikzai 55*)
Scotland - 156 for 5 (Munsey 41, Coetzer 40, Machan 36, Rashid 2-28)
Result - Afghanistan won by 14 runs
Points - Afghanistan 2, Scotland 0
MOM - Mohammad Shahzad (Afghanistan)
