Sco v Afg 2nd ODI Review: Mohammad Shahzad trashed Scotland away to clinch the series

Mohammad Shahzad of Afghanistan is not a new name in the pool. He has already made his mark in the international arena over the years. Shahzad was also quite impressive in the recently concluded World T20 in India. On Wednesday, it was his 91-ball 84, which took his side to a series victory over Scotland.

Afghanistan beat Scotland by 78 runs in a rain-interrupted match after winning the toss and batting first. Apart from Shahzad, none of the Afghan batters made a valuable contribution, as they were down to 178 from 37.2 overs when the rain came in. Rahmat Shah, who scored a century in the first ODI, scored 26 runs in the match.

In the chase of the revised target of 211 runs from 36 overs, Scotland never looked comfortable as they lost wickets at regular intervals. They lost their opener Kyle Coetzer in the second ball of the match who played out a tentative stroke and edged it to Noor Ali Zadran at first slip.

The duo of Craig Wallace and Matthew Cross added 58 runs for the second wicket. Cross was caught by Najibullah inside the boundary rope off the bowling of Mohammad Nabi. After adding just one more run to the total, Wallace ave it back to the bowler which brought an end to his entertaining knock of 33 from 15 balls.

They kept on losing wickets and were all out for 132 in 27.1 overs. Mohammad Nabi picked up 3 wickets, whereas Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran, and Rashid Khan claimed 2 wickets each. Thus Afghanistan won the two-match ODI series 1-0 after the first match was washed out.

Brief Scores:

Afghanistan – 178/6 (Mohammad Shahzad 84, R Shah 26, Brad Wheal 2/31)

Scotland – 132 all out (C Wallace 33, M Cross 24, M Nabi 3/26)

Man of the match: Mohammad Shahzad