Spinner Mujeeb-ur Rahman’s five-wicket haul propelled Afghanistan ease past Scotland with a record 130-run victory in their opening Super 12s match of the Twenty20 World Cup on Monday.
Chasing a daunting 191 target set by the dark horses of the world cup, Scotland was bowled out for 60 in 10.2 overs with five batters dismissed for ducks in Sharjah.
Mujeeb returned his best T20 figures of 5-20 and fellow spinner Rashid Khan claimed four wickets to hand Afghanistan their biggest victory margin in the T20 format.
Najibullah Zadran set up the win with his 34-ball 59 to guide Afghanistan to their best total of 190-4 in the tournament after they elected to bat first.
Mujeeb remained the hero with his three wickets in one over, including two in successive deliveries, to decimate Scotland’s top and middle order.
Scotland could never recover after Calum MacLeod, Richie Berrington and Matthew Cross fell without scoring, and the team crashed to their lowest T20 total.
Earlier, Najibullah and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (46) put together an attacking 87-run partnership for the third wicket, tearing into the Scotland bowling with seven sixes between them.
Najibullah caught at the boundary on the last delivery of the innings while attempting his fourth six in a 34-ball blitz that took Afghanistan past their previous tournament-high of 186 in 2016.
Hazratullah Zazai put on a quickfire opening stand of 54 with Mohammad Shahzad, who made 22. Zazai smashed 44 off 30 balls but Mark Watt denied the batsman a fifty after bowling him with a toe-crushing yorker.
The win puts Afghanistan at the top of the Group 2 table above Pakistan, who thrashed rivals India by 10 wickets on Sunday.
Scotland captain Kyle Coetzer said, “We have been playing some good cricket to get here, but sometimes things don’t go to plan.”
The skipper added, “We fought hard in the field. It’s just a level check to see where our standards are. We’ll be better for it in the next game.”
