Certain matches involving associates deserve special mention, not out of mere respect and sympathy towards those teams, but out of the sheer brilliance displayed by them. Afghanistan vs Scotland was one such match, which went down the wire and had heads turning towards them all over the world. Scotland, in the first innings, reached a respectable 210 and set a target of 211 for Afghanistan. Afghanistan stuttered and stammered as their wickets were dwindling at a fast pace and runs weren’t coming by smoothly. They looked deliriously close to suffering a massive defeat, when they were at 97-7 in 24 overs. Then came a gritty knock of Samiullah Shenwari, who helped Afghanistan inch closer to victory. He made a gutsy 96, missing out on a well-deserved century. With the fall of his wicket, Afghanistan were at 192-9 in 46 overs, and either team had a fair chance to win this thriller. Hamid Hassan and Shapoor Zadran batted sensibly and brought the equation to 5 needed off the last over. Shapoor Zadran sealed their win with a boundary in the 3rd ball of the final over, to bring Afghanistan their first-ever World Cup victory. For a team to recover from 7 wickets down and go on to win the match, Afghanistan (mainly Samiullah Shenwari) had given a brilliant lesson on how to bat responsibly under pressure. Scotland also did very well to recover from Samiullah Shenwari’s knock and take the match down to the last over, but finally had to settle for a very close loss
- Harini Raman
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