Afghanistan batter Ibrahim Zadran along with his batting partner Gurbaz made a 154 runs-opening stand and made a strong foundation for the team in their T20 World Cup 2024 opening match against Uganda.
Gurbaz and Zadran even made a record-breaking partnership by scoring 66 runs without losing a wicket in the first powerplay. 64/2 vs South Africa in 2016 was their previous best in the powerplay, and Afghanistan’s 66/0 vs Uganda today made them surpass their own record.
The duo made an impressive 150-plus runs for the first wicket and helped their team scoring 183 runs at the end of 20 overs. Masaba broke the partnership by dismissing Zardan for 70 runs.
Ibrahim Zadran Opens on Record-Breaking Opening Partnership
At the end of Afghanistan’s batting inning, Ibrahim Zadran reveals the secret behind his impressive partnership with Gurbaz.
“I’m gonna try to keep it very simple, I don’t think a lot, I want to become a great cricketer. (On the six he hit tonight) I middled that one very well, enjoyed that shot. If you look at our partnership, we have been playing together since a long time, we have good communication in running between the wickets.
It’s little bit problem if you haven’t faced the bowler in the past, me and Gurbaz discussed that we won’t go from ball one and we will have a look at the bowlers. We will see from which end the bowler is bowling, that was the communication between us”, Zadran said.
Following his dismissal, Afghans struggled to build a partnership and lost their wickets at regular intervals. Afghanistan scored 152 runs at a run rate of 10.86 in the first 14 overs while in the remaining six overs, Afghans managed to score just 31 runs at a run rate of just 5.16. Moreover, the Afghans lost 5 wickets without a boundary in 15-20 overs.
Uganda’s Cosmas Kyewuta and Masaba bagged a couple of wickets each while Bilal Hassan bagged a wicket and restricted Afghanistan to score 183 at the end of 20 overs.
Afghanistan innings:
- Overs 1-14: 152/0 (RR: 10.86)
- Overs 15-20: 31/5 (RR: 5.16) – no boundaries
