Twitter Reactions: The Zazai-Rashid combo helps Afghanistan win the T20I series against Ireland

By winning both the first two T20Is against Ireland now, Afghanistan has managed to win the series. In the second T20I game, they were clinical enough in all departments of the game to bag a mammoth 81-run victory. Hazratullah Zazai was yet again mighty impressive and has scored almost half of the runs for his team’s total.

Furthermore, Afghanistan has now won all the 7 T20Is that they have played in 2018. On the other hand, the performance from Ireland was quite disappointing and below par. It would be interesting to see if the Afghans would continue their dominance in the final T20I on Friday or if Ireland could make a comeback.

Haratullah Zazai stars with the bat yet again

After winning the toss, Afghanistan skipper Asghar Stanikzai opted to bat first. But, Afghanistan lost two early wickets and was down to 8/2 within 3 overs. But, Hazratullah Zazai and Stanikzai steadied the ship with a 116-run partnership. Zazai played some brilliant shots all around the ground and scored 82 runs off 54 balls. His innings included 7 sixes and 6 fours.

However, Afghanistan, just like in the first game, didn’t play out the last few overs really well. They scored 23 runs off the last 3 overs and lost 4 wickets in the process. In their quota of 20 overs, they put up 160 runs on the board for the loss of 8 wickets. Peter Chase picked 3 wickets for Ireland.

Beware of Rashid and Mujeeb!

Ireland had a great chance of chasing this target down. All they required was to maintain a run rate just above 8 to win the game. But, they ended up losing 3 wickets early in the game and could never recover from there on. Mujeeb Ur Rahman picked two wickets in the same over in the powerplay to get Ireland down to 9/3.

The Afghan sensation Rashid Khan chipped in and kept picking wickets at regular intervals. He picked 4 wickets in just 3 overs as Ireland bundled out for 79 runs in 15 overs. While Mujeeb picked 3 wickets, the rest of the bowlers picked one wicket each. Ireland lost its last six wickets for just 19 runs.

Twitterati lauded Hazratullah Zazai for his innings and hoped for his to make his IPL debut next year. Rashid Khan and Mujeeb were brilliant as usual and helped the fans enjoy the game with their bowling.

Here is how Twitter reacted:

The entire @Irelandcricket team = 79 runs, @zazai_3 by himself = 82 runs

what an emerging talent, we’ll players zwana #proud #IREvAFG @acauk1 @APLT20official

— Bashir Gharwal غروال (@b_gharwal) August 22, 2018

He just gets better !!@rashidkhan_19 👏👏 continues his amazing form #AFGvIRE #2ndT20I pic.twitter.com/9J2z9ZODuC

— Afghan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) August 22, 2018

Standard 👏🏼

— Danielle Wyatt (@Danni_Wyatt) August 22, 2018

Many many Congratulations
Afghanistan won the match 👏🎉💪#zindabad #Afghanistan
#AFGvIRE

— Maryam khan (@MaryamOmarkhan1) August 22, 2018

Wow @Mujeeb_R88 got 2-6 in 2 overs so far 💞 well bowled little champ. #AFGvIRE

— ❤Sahar❤Afghan❤ (@sadaat_sahar) August 22, 2018

This is the 2nd time that we lost our way towards a big score…. Back to back wickets in last overs in both the T20 😡 #AFGvIRE

— ❤Sahar❤Afghan❤ (@sadaat_sahar) August 22, 2018

Done and Dusted! 2-0 up.Need to give a chance to Guys on the Bench @ACBofficials #AFGvIRE

— Karthik Raj (@kartcric) August 22, 2018

Afghanistan's spin trio (Mujeeb-Rashid-Nabi) destsoying every team and birlliant effort from their batsmen as Afghanistan haven't lost a T20I match this year, won all the 7. #AFGvIRE

— Fazal 🇵🇰 (@Faxal_Aslam) August 23, 2018