Mujeeb Ur Rahman picks up a fifer in his team’s first T20 World Cup match against Scotland on Monday. The 20-year-old bowled an amazing spell for his team after they posted a massive total of 190 in their 20 overs against a depleted-looking Scottish bowling attack.
Winning the toss Afghanistan broke the trend set in this world cup so far, of batting second to win the game. Their move didn’t backfire though as their openers and later middle-order batsmen put up an impressive show to keep the momentum going. Their opener Zazai scored 44 of 30, then Gurbaz at number 4 played a knock of 46 in 37, while Najibullah made 59 in 34. Their captain Mohammad Nabi too played a blistering knock of 11 from 4 at the end to help his team reach 190.
The skipper then opened the bowling himself, and asked Mujeeb to ball from the other end, perplexing the whole Scotland team with his tactic of opening with 2 spinners from both ends. The move paid off when Mujeeb picked up three wickets in the 4th over of the game to remove Scottish Captain Coetzer for 10, followed by MacLeod for a golden duck on consecutive balls and later Berrington for another duck in the last ball of the over. This completely broke the spine of the Scottish batsman who couldn’t make a comeback in the match at all. Returning for his third over in the 6th over of the inning Mujeeb removed Munsey who was looking in better touch in comparison to his countrymen. Bowling his consecutive fourth and final over on the trot, Mujeeb removed Mark Watt in the 5th ball of the eighth over to complete his fifer.
FIFER: Tremendous Bowling Display from @Mujeeb_R88 as he picked 5 wickets conceding only 20 runs in his 4 overs.
It’s his best bowling figures in T20Is.#AFGvsSCO #T20WorldCup2021 pic.twitter.com/vG0EmMC0q0
— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) October 25, 2021
With these wickets, he became the first bowler for Afghanistan to take a fifer in T20 World Cups. He also beat his captain Nabi’s best figure for Afghanistan. Nabi had a previous best of 4 wickets for 20, while Mujeeb recorded 5 wickets for just 19 runs.
