Zubairullah shines in Afghanistan ‘A’s win

By M. Shamil Amit

 Zubairullah Akbari shone with a top knock of 79 in Afghanistan ‘A’’s comfortable 72-run win over Oman ‘A’ in their opening match of the ACC Men’s Emerging Teams Asia Cup limited over tournament played at the CCC ground yesterday.  

Oman ‘A’ in pursuit of a challenging target of 268 runs were restricted by the Afghanistan ‘A’ bowling trio Mohammad Ibrahim, Rahman Akbar and Izharulhaq Naveed who together shared eight wickets between them as they were able to muster a score of only 195 runs.
Afghanistan ‘A’ skipper Shahidullah Kamal winning the toss and electing to take first lease of the wicket saw the openers Zubairullah Akbari and Reyaz Hassan giving the team a flying start of 90 runs before being separated with the dismissal of Hassan.

Akbari who made a top score of 79 which came off 84 balls comprising 14 boundaries shared a brief partnership of 46 runs for the second wicket with Noor Ali Zadran.

Even though there were no big partnerships coming from there on there were brief but useful contributions, valuable knocks coming from Shahidullah Kamal, Sharafuddin Ashraf and Ikram Alikhi helped put up a challenging score. 

Result:

At CCC – Afghanistan ‘A” won by 72 runs
Afghanistan ‘A’ 267 for 8 in 49 overs (Zubairullah Akbari 79, Shahidullah Kamal 45, Noor Ali Zadran 35, Reyaz Hassan 27, Sharafuddin Ashraf 24, Ikram Alikhil 34 n.o.: Kaleemullah 2 for 41, Aaqib Ilyas Sulheri 2 for 50)  
Oman ‘A’ 195 in 40.3 overs (Ayaan Khan 47, Shoib Khan 47, Aaqib Ilyas Sulheri 39, Ahmad Fayyaz Butt 19 n.o.: Mohammad Ibrahim 3 for 22, Zia Ur Rahman Akbar 3 for 37, Izharulhaq Naveed 2 for 42)