Afghanistan annihilated hosts Sri Lanka by 8 wickets in the tournament opener on Saturday (August 27) in Dubai, UAE to start off their campaign on a perfect note.
Mohammad Nabi won the toss and opted to bowl first as has been the trend at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium in recent years, and his fast bowlers Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen-ul-Haq justified the decision by reducing Sri Lanka to 5/3 in two overs.
Sri Lanka never recovered from that woeful start and were in tatters at 75/9 despite Bhanuka Rajapaksa scoring 38. Chamika Karunaratne provided some respectability to the total with 31, as the team folded for 105 in 19.4 overs.
Farooqi (3/11), Nabi (2/14) and Mujeeb-ur-Rahman (2/24) were the main wicket-takers for Afghanistan. Star spinner Rashid Khan remained wicket-less in a rare occurrence but conceded just 12 runs from his four overs.
Afghanistan's reply with the bat was very aggressive as openers Hazratullah Zazai (37*) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (40) added 83 for the first wicket in just 6.1 overs to all but seal the win. Ibrahim Zadran (15) also contributed there after as Zazai hit the winning runs with 59 balls left.
The cricket fraternity was impressed by the performance of Afghanistan, who made a big statement while registering their first win of the tournament over the five-time winners.
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