Twitter Reactions: Mohammad Shahzad powers Afghanistan to 252

The penultimate match of the Super 4 in the 2018 Asia Cup between India and Afghanistan had no significance as far as the tournament is concerned. The Men in Blue, being the most in-form team of the event, were expected to roll their opponents over. However, the Afghans showed immense resilience and put forth a target of 253 runs for India to chase down.

Shahzad blazes away

Asghar Afghan won the toss and didn’t hesitate to bat first. Javed Ahmadi and Mohammad Shahzad took Afghanistan off to a blistering start with a partnership of 65 runs from 76 deliveries. However, while Ahmadi strained to score the runs, the swashbuckling Shahzad looked at sheer ease. Ravindra Jadeja nipped out Ahmadi and ended the batter’s 30-ball five-run vigil.

Thereafter, Afghanistan lost Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi and the skipper perished in no time and the batting team was reduced to 82/4 after 15.3 overs. In the meantime, Shahzad accomplished his half-century off 37 balls. The 30-year-old went on to score his fifth century in 88 balls. The Nangarhar-born wicketkeeper-batsman eventually scored 124 runs from 116 balls.

Nabi injects the impetus

Gulbadin Naib tried to put his head down but fell prey to Deepak Chahar. After Naib’s dismissal, Shahzad and Mohammad Nabi took charge and cobbled together a stand of 48 runs, which ended with Shahzad’s dismissal. Nabi and Najibullah Zadran put together 46 runs to build a launchpad for the Afghans. Jadeja nipped Najibullah out for 20 runs to separate them.

Nabi went on to score a magnificent half-century and scored 64 runs from 56 balls to guide his team to a respectable position. Khaleel Ahmed picked him up in the 48th over. Rashid Khan and Aftab Alam picked up the singles in the death overs to lift Afghanistan to 252 runs for the loss of eight wickets. Jadeja was arguably India’s most successful bowler with three wickets.

Here is how Twitter reacted

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