By Madhav Dada 
Afghanistan is currently touring UAE for a 3-match T20I series and the second match of the series concluded just now with UAE taking a big 9-wicket win over Afghanistan with their opener Muhammad Waseem missing a solid century by just 9 runs.
Afghanistan had won the toss in the match and elected to bat first.
Batting first, Afghanistan made 137 runs at the loss of 6 wickets. Najubullah Zadran was the top run scorer for the team with 37 runs in 29 balls. Hazratullah Zazai followed Najubullah Zadran with 27 runs in 29 balls. Afsar Zazai followed Hazratullah Zazai on the list with 18 runs from 24 deliveries.
Find: Afghanistan’s winning start of the T20I Series
Zahoor Khan and Zawar Farid took two wickets each in the match for UAE with Junaid Siddique and Akif Raja taking a wicket each to join the party. UAE conceded 6 extras to Afghanistan while bowling.
UAE opened the second inning with Muhammad Waseem and Vriitya Aravind. Opener Muhammad made 91 runs in 50 deliveries before being out. Another opener, Vriitya, made 38 not-out runs in 46 balls. Chundangapoyil Rizwan was at 3 for UAE while batting and made 9 not-out runs in 14 delivered balls.
While Afghanistan bowled very disciplined and conceded no extras to UAE while bowling in the game, Karim Janat was the only bowler to find a wicket for the team in the game. The target was achieved by UAE in 18.2 overs to take a big 9-wicket win over the full member Afghanistan.
UAE has levelled the 3-match series 1-1 with the win and the series decider will be played tomorrow 19 February 2023.
Zainab Shafiq