UAE beat Afghanistan by 5 wickets in the first one dayer at the global cricket academy and thus incurred a 1-0 lead in the 4-match series. However we reckon, the target given by our boys was definitely a winning one. Our frontline bowlers (Dawlat & Shapoor) gave too many in the begining and didnt get early breakthroughs. That was the prime reason for this loss. The idea of using Gulbadin as the fifth bowler didnt click. He was expensive as usual. Also couldnt understand the idea of picking Ahmadi in the playing XI when he wasnt really used in any role. NZL A made similar amount of runs against UAE & restricted them to around 170 at this ground. In the last game, NZL A made even lesser score but still managed to restrict us under 100 over the same pitch. So we do not feel Afghans made a mess in their batting. Its the bowling which let us down. Earlier the pitch was hard & there was enough seam & swing present which troubled our top order. Nawroz & Usman made a slow start since stroke making wasnt that easy. After Usman departed at the end of first powerplay, debutant Afsar joined Nawroz. Afsar held one end together while Nawroz took some chances to accelerate the scoring steadily. Nabi, Asghar & Samiullah all contributed in the middle while Afsar kept on playing the role of a perfect sheet anchor. They accumulated 85 odd runs in the last 10 overs to put respectibility to the total. The target of 249 runs was definitely defendable considering the sporting nature of the wicket. But batting became easier in the second half in contrast to the first innings. Also our frontline bowlers committed too many unforced errors in terms of line & length which pegged them back. UAE made a flying start which put us on the backfoot right from the begining. Plus our bowlers couldnt run through their middle order. All in all, inspite of Afsars promising ODI debut, boys failed to deliver in bowling which cost us the game. The second ODI is scheduled tomorrow at the same venue. Full Scorecard: espncricinfo/ci/engine/match/803795.html
Posted on: Sat, 29 Nov 2014 06:48:08 +0000