Abdul Malik grabbed the opportunity with both hands to engineer a List A century over Oman in the one day series decider at the cricket academy ground of Muscat. Riding over Malik’s ton and a few other notable performances from Nasir Jamal, Tahir Adil and Ishaq Rahimi, Afghanistan A posted a par total of 272 on board that eventually won the one day series by a margin of 2-0.
Openers gave a subdued start
Earlier skipper Shahid Kamal won the toss and elected to bat again on a somewhat tricky surface. The start was pretty slow as the top order could only manage 34 runs in the batting power play. Zubaid Akbari was dismissed pretty early when he nicked one straight into the wicket keeper’s gloves while attempting to punch a drive. Skipper Shahidullah failed to put up a significant score twice in a row after getting set. Rahmanullah Zadran also put up a disappointing performance by scoring only six runs.
Malik and Jamal put up a 118-run stand
Abdul then found a suitable ally in Nasir Jamal with whom he piled on a 118-run partnership. In the process Abdul reached his third List A century with the help of nine boundaries and a six. Jamal also brought up his fifty in the process. Couple of crucial cameos came from Tahir Adil and Ishaq Rahimi which ensured that Afghanistan A ended up on a reasonable total.
Oman has themselves to blame for the loss
Naveed Zadran and Wafadar started the proceedings together and Oman were quickly reduced to 45/3 inside the first power play. But skipper Zeeshan Maqsood and Shoaib Khan built a nice partnership to take Oman past hundred. Later on with Aayan Khan, Shoaib stitched another 108 run stand which looked to take the game away from Abdalayan’s. But as it happened in the first match, Shoaib committed a suicide while attempting to take a non existent second run. Aayan also departed soon and the match was interestingly poised for a close finish. The pacers took charge of the slog overs and quickly wrapped up the tail thereby dashing the hopes of Oman to equalize the series.
Naveed Zadran is the biggest positive of the series
Naveed Zadran emerged as the most impressive talent among the pacers. He looked the most threatening among the bowlers with good speed and accuracy and ended the series with five wickets to his kitty. Zia Akbar was economical as usual. Shahid did decently with his part time spin. In spite of taking four wickets from two matches Wafadar conceded the most runs. In the batting department, Malik and Zubaid were impressive with their approaches to stay at the wicket for prolonged periods. Wicket keeper Ishaq Rahimi consolidated his position with two important cameos. His glove work was also neat and clean. Now that a probable series with England Lions is on the cards, these players have done no harm to their chances of getting selected on that tour.