INSUBCONTINENT EXCLUSIVE:
A four-wicket haul from Naveen-ul-Haq and a three-for from Qais Ahmad consigned United Arab Emirates to a series defeat in Sharjah as
Afghanistan won by four wickets to clinch the T20I trophy 2-1.Naveen&s three wickets in the first-innings powerplay had UAE reeling at 38
for 4 by the sixth over, after which Qais stepped up to claim the next three scalps, including UAE&s top scorer Muhammad Waseem (27)
UAE&s score of 75 for 7 soon became 107 for 9 when Naveen returned to pick up his fourth to finish with 4 for 20, but an unbeaten 19-run
tenth-wicket partnership between Muhammad Jawadullah and Junaid Siddique took the hosts to 126
Qais finished with 3 for 24 while Azmatullah Omarzai picked up two, ESPNcricinfo.com reported.Afghanistan&s chase was comfortable if not
Rahmanullah Gurbaz&s 14-ball 20 provided the early impetus, and the pair of Hazratullah Zazai (36) and Ibrahim Zadran (23) scored slowly
but kept the chase moving
The Zazai-Ibrahim stand of 37 for the second wicket took Afghanistan past the halfway stage of the target, but a middle-order collapse &
where they slid from 85 for 2 to 103 for 6 & gave UAE an opening.However, with 24 needed in 18 balls, Najibullah Zadran turned up the tempo
again, smacking two fours in the 18th over to bring the rate under six
With 13 needed off the last two overs, he finished the game with consecutive sixes to finish unbeaten on 28 at a strike-rate of 215. The
post Naveen, Najibullah and Qais give Afghanistan 2-1 series win against UAE first appeared on Ariana News.
