Mohammad's brilliant century, Nabi's quick fifty steer Afghanistan to a competitive total
Mohammad Shahzad slammed the most significant hundred of his career to take Afghanistan to 252 for eight against India, lightening up the dead 'Super Four' rubber of the Asia Cup here on Tuesday.
Chasing 253 to win, India was batting at 200 for 4 wickets in 37 overs, still needing 53 runs of remaining 78 balls.
Dinesh Karthik was batting at 41 while Kedar Jadhav was at 18.
Earlier for India, the new opening combination of Ambati Rayudu and Lokesh Rahul give Men in Blue a flying start by adding 110 runs for first wicket before Ambati Rayudu (57 of 49 balls) was caught by Najibullah of Nabi's delivery. While his opening partner KL Rahul, who was playing his maiden game in the tournament made brilliant 60 of 66 balls before he was out leg before by Rashid Khan in the 21st over.
The duo smashed Afghan bowlers all around the park by scoring boundaries on regular initervals. Rayudu, who was playing his fifth straight game was on attacking front on Tuesday wand the Hyderabad batsman picked four boundaries along with as many number of sixes. While KL smashed five fours and a six.
After the dismissal of opening duo, skipper MS Dhoni came to bat at number four but his stay at crease was limited to just 17 balls and the wicketkeeper batsman who was leading India for the 200th time was given out lbw by Gregory Brathwaite of Javed Ahmadi's delivery. But in the replay it was clearly visible that the ball was missing leg stump. However the team couldn't review umpire's decision because of n review left which ultimately leave MS with no chance but just to return in disappointment.
After the skipper's dismissal, Manish Pandey came to bat for the first time in the tournament but even he couldn't make the opportunity count and was out for eight runs.
For Afghanistan while the other batsmen struggled, it seemed the unconventional Shahzad was batting on a different surface, hammering 11 fours and as many as seven sixes.
Later, the experienced Mohammad Nabi produced a handy knock, 64 off 56 balls, to ensure that Afghanistan put up a competitive total.
The undisputed star of the evening was wicket-keeper batsman Shahzad, who was no short of inspiration in the middle with his role model M S Dhoni standing behind the stumps.
While his opening partner Javed Ahmadi was even struggling to get a single, Shazad thoroughly entertained the crowd with a barrage of big hits. He was ruthless especially against the rookie Indian pacers Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul and debutant Deepak Chahar, who were played in place of the rested Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendar Chahal.
Chahar had a forgettable debut even though he picked up a wicket.
The other Indian players rested for the game were captain Rohit Sharma and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan. Lokesh Rahul and Manish Pandey replaced them in the eleven and as fate would have it, Dhoni stepped on the field to captain India for the 200th time.
The pacers were guilty of bowling too full or too full and Shazad made them pay for their mistakes. Most of his lofty shots were crossed-batted as he cleared his front foot to hit the huge sixes over deep mid-wicket.
He even had his luck on his side as he was dropped at mid-off on way to completing a half century. He surprisingly experienced the nervous 90s before finally reaching the three figures for the fifth time in ODIs, with a flick off Chahar towards the fine-leg boundary.
It was not a full-strength Indian bowling attack but that takes nothing away from Shazad's sensational effort. His other ODI hundreds had come against Canada, Zimbabwe, Scotland and Netherlands.
Afghanistan would have been in deep trouble if it was not for Shazad, who was running out of partners at one stage with his team reeling at 82 for four from 65 for no loss after Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav (2/38) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/46) came into play. The chinaman was even on a hat-trick.
Shahzad was then joined by Gulbadin Naib (15 off 46) and the two shared a 50-run stand for the fifth wicket. After his dismissal, Nabi started plundering the bowlers, hitting four sixes and three boundaries to take help the team cross 250.
