United Arab Emirates Vs Afghanistan 1st T20i 29 December 2023

1st T20I • Sharjah Cricket Stadium • Sharjah

Afghanistan

203/3 (20)

United Arab Emirates

131/4 (20)

AFG won by 72 runs

Info

Fantasy

Live

Scorecard

Playing XI

Playing XILineups Out

Fantasy Top Picks

Expert Team 1

R Gurbaz

F Farooqi

Expert Team 2

I Zadran

F Farooqi

Venue Details

Sharjah Cricket Stadium

Pace BowlingAverage

Batting ConditionAverage

Spin BowlingAverage

1st Innings

151Avg Runs

7Avg Wkts

127.98Avg SR

2nd Innings

123Avg Runs

6Avg Wkts

115.86Avg SR

Team Form (Last 5 Matches, Most recent first)

Team Form (Last 5 Matches)

United Arab Emirates

Afghanistan

Head To Head (Last 10 Matches)

UAE

2- 3

AFG

Team Comparison (Last 10 Matches)

Matches Played

Matches Won

150

Average Score

135

212/3

Highest Score

182/7

88/8

Lowest Score

92/9

Player of the Match Rahmanullah Gurbaz

100(52)

Commentary

That is all we have from the opening T20I between Afghanistan and UAE. The Afghans were too good for the new look UAE side but they showed some promise. It will be a tall order for them to get past Afghanistan in this sort of form. Catch us again tomorrow for all the live cricketing action but for now this is me (Arya Sekhar Chakraborty) signing off also on behalf of my fellow commentator and good mates Rajarshi Das and Soumarya Dutta. Goodnight! Cheers!

Ibrahim Zadran (Afghanistan captain): Yeah this is my first time captaining Afghanistan. It's a surreal experience. A double challenge for me. Playing as a player and a captain is totally different. Yeah, I would say we have a wonderful side in T20s. Fazalhaq, Azmat and very good spinners. Unfortunately, Rashid is not playing. His replacement Qais Ahmad bowled brilliantly. Yeah we will try to play positive cricket and keep it very simple. We will try to come out to the ground with definite plans and a definite mentality. Yeah we always have a good partnership between me and Gurbaz. When Hazrat got out I tried to read the wicket. I was talking to Gurbaz that one of us has to go 15 overs and then we could execute the plan. The role in my team is anchoring. It was my plan to go hard in the final over but unfortunately, I got out.

Muhammad Waseem (UAE captain): Yeah first of all congratulations to Gurbaz. He played an outstanding knock and took the game away from us and smashed us everywhere. We have good talent. Tanish was playing well but we have to work hard and come back strong. Nothing went wrong actually. Gurbaz played a brilliant knock and Ibrahim also batted so well. They took the game away from us. Hopefully we will come back stronger.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz is the Player Of The Match! Here's what he has to say: I came close, but I never got a hundred. Feels really exciting, everyone has a dream of scoring a hundred, especially in T20 cricket. Hazrat was doing well, he tried to attack the bowlers. My plan then was to give him the strike. Whenever I got a loose delivery I tried to put it away, the wicket was not easy. The crowd comes everywhere and supports us, it's an amazing feeling, especially here. The crowd was here, and they supported both the teams. Thanks to them, and I hope they come next game as well. I played a few other good knocks in T20s and ODIs as well, but I can say this will be a special one.

Afghanistan won by 72 runs

Rahmanullah Gurbaz 100(52) | Fazallhaq Farooqi 2/19(4)
Vritya Aravind 70*(64) | Aayan Khan 1/26(4)

It turned out to be a rather comfortable victory day for Afghanistan as they took a 1-0 lead in the three-match T20I series. Though UAE managed to bat out their full quota of 20 overs without any fuss, it was a questionable approach from the batters who took their own sweet time and never really went after the target of 203. Opportunity was given to the youngsters of UAE and they showed glimpses of their talent but left a lot to be desired. The run chase was always going to be a tall order for UAE but atleast the intent should have been there despite the early wickets.

It was Fazalhaq Farooqi who made an immediate impact, removing Khalid Shah with a traditional inswinger. Their main batter Muhammad Waseem failed to make an impact and that turned out to be a massive blow in the context of the game. He tried to lift a good length delivery from Naveen-ul-Haq over the mid off fielder but ended up hitting it straight down his throat. The match was more or less sealed by Afghanistan by then but UAE still managed to hold their nerves and batted out the remaining overs.

It was Basil Hameed and Tanish Suri who chipped in with useful knocks but it didn't play any part in getting UAE close to the target. Vritya Aravind was the lone fighter for the home team as he remained unbeaten on 70 but didn't quite manage to play the big shots when required. However, he managed to get some big shots away and struck 7 fours and a six during his good knock.

overs

131 /4 score

runs

Tanish Suri *

20 (25)

Vritiya Aravind

70 (64)

Naveen-ul-Haq

1 /25

19.6 Naveen-ul-Haq to Tanish Suri, good length delivery on off, Suri drives towards cover-point for a run. Afghanistan take the first T20I by a margin of 72 runs!

19.5 Naveen-ul-Haq to Tanish Suri, slower ball, on a length outside off, Suri tried to go over cover, missed out

19.4 Naveen-ul-Haq to Vriitya Aravind, slower ball, pitched up outside off. Aravind went for a hoick and got an inside edge. The ball trickled past off stump, Gurbaz dived to his left and made the stop. Suri called Aravind for a run and they made it

19.3 Naveen-ul-Haq to Vriitya Aravind, full outside off stump, Aravind looked to go over cover, missed out

19.2 Naveen-ul-Haq to Tanish Suri, slower ball, was the leg-cutter outside off. Suri looked to play it behind point, ended up skewing it towards cover. Just a single

19.1 Naveen-ul-Haq to Tanish Suri, slower ball, pitched up outside off. Suri looked to slash over cover, didn't meet it right

Naveen-ul-Haq [3-0-22-1] will bowl the final over.

Vritya Aravind getting inside the line of that delivery and smokes it over the deep square leg fence. All too late for UAE but these powerful strokes will give Vritya a lot of confidence going into the next match. The last over or the match coming up.

overs

128 /4 score

runs

Vritiya Aravind *

69 (62)

Tanish Suri

18 (21)

Azmatullah Omarzai

0 /32

18.6 Azmatullah Omarzai to Vriitya Aravind, SIX! Aravind picks the short one early this time! This was a touch too straight as well - Aravind rocked back, went for the hook, the connection wasn't the best, but there was enough for the ball to carry over the ropes at deep backward square!

18.5 Azmatullah Omarzai to Vriitya Aravind, banged in short outside off, Aravind tried having a slash at it, made no contact

18.4 Azmatullah Omarzai to Tanish Suri, on a good length outside off, Suri backs away, has a slash at it, the ball takes the outside edge and flies towards third man. Zazai jogs in, gathers on the bounce, keeps them to one

18.3 Azmatullah Omarzai to Tanish Suri, banged in short just outside off, Suri sways away from the line of the ball

18.2 Azmatullah Omarzai to Vriitya Aravind, good length delivery outside off, dabbed down to third man for a run