Azmatullah Omarzai Creates HISTORY, Becomes First Player In The World To...
Photo : AP
Afghanistan created history as they sealed their first-ever win in the Champions Trophy, by defeating England by 8 runs in the Group B encounter at the Gaddafi Stadium in Lahore. They thus knocked the English team out of the tournament, and now need one more win in the final game of th group vs Australia, to seal a historic semi-final berth. One of the players who made an impact with his performance was Azmatullah Omarzai. The star all-rounder shined with both and ball as he became the first player in history to achieve a unique feat.
Azmatullah Omarzai played a crucial knock of 41 runs from 31 balls in the 1st innings, as Afghanistan put up a total of 326/7. In the second innings, he was the star of the show with the ball, as he picked up a five-wicket haul, ending with figures of 5/59. He picked up the important wickets of Phil Salt, Jos Buttler, Joe Root, Jamie Overton and Adil Rashid.
Omarzai thus became the first player in history to score 40+ and take 5 wickets in the same match in the Champions Trophy. He also becomes the fifth player after Jacques Kallis, Makhaya Ntini, Jacob Oram and Glenn McGrath to take five wickets in a run-chse in the tournament's history.
Ibrahim Zadran Scrips Historic Innings As Afghanistan Defeat England
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Jofra Archer breathed fire in the beginning of the first innings, as he picked up three early wickets to reduce the Afghans to 39/3 in the first powerplay. After that it was the Ibrahim Zadran show. The Afghan opener smashed the England bowlers all over the part as he scored 177- the highest individual score in Champions Trophy history. He was given able support by Hashmatullah Shahidi, Azmatullah Omarzai and Mohammad Nabi. In fact, he stitched 100-run stands with Shahidi and Nabi. Afghanistan scored 325/7 at the end of their innings.
Omarzai's five-wicket haul rattled England in the second innings as they lost the match by 8 runs. Joe Root waged a lone battle as he slammed 120 and almost took them to the finishing line. His efforts, however, went in vain.
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