Abu Dhabi T10 raises the question: Are Afghanistan batsmen turning out to be bigger hard-hitters than the West Indies?

 By K.R. Nayar

It was Afghanistan batsmen's day at the Abu Dhabi T10 on Thursday. Two Afghanistan batsmen emerged match winners steering Bengal Tigers and Delhi Bulls to emphatic victories over their opponents through their sheer aggressive batting.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz 

In the first match of the day, it was the show of Hazaratullah Zazai who cracked 59 off 26 balls studded with five sixes and three boundaries that ensured Bengal Tigers a nine-wicket win over Deccan Gladiators.

In the second match, Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored a breezy 70 off just 32 balls with five sixes and six boundaries that gave Delhi Bulls an eight-wicket win over Northern Warriors.

Zazai is 23 years old and Gurbaz is just 19, but the power they back behind their shots was enormous. All that the fielders could do was to helplessly watch the ball racing to the boundary, sometimes all along the grass like a bullet and sometimes fly over the boundary.

Hazaratullah Zazai 

Deccan Gladiators had batted first and had the experienced West Indies player Andre Russell with them. But he scored just three runs. Instead, it was Tom Banton who top-scored for them with 30 runs. David Wiese (25n.o)  and Odean Smith (26n.o) finally guided Gladiators to 116 for 5.

Bengal Tigers began their chase with another West Indies hard hitter Johnson Charles, but he fell for 22. Zazai then took charge and virtually thrashed the bowling attack. He reached his half-century with a six. The interesting aspect of Zazai’s onslaught was that he hit consecutive sixes like he did against Hasaranga De Silva. Zazai never cares about the reputation of the bowler he faces. In fact, in this match, he hit the first ball he faced for a six, and that too flicking Wahab Riaz. He also hit a boundary as the winning shot.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz gets a hug from Luke Wright for his fine knock 

The hero of the second match was Gurbaz. Earlier, Northern Warriors had posted a total of 128 for 6 mainly through their West Indies batsman Rovman Powell, who is also the team skipper. He hit almost half the team’s total through his 56 off 22 balls with five sixes and four boundaries.  Usually, when a West Indies batsman hits, it gets tough for other teams to match the run rate. But it seems like if the opponents have an Afghanistan batsman in their team, then any run rate is achievable.

Once Gurbaz began to open up, he raced past his partner, England’s Luke Wright (40n.0).  The first over for Warriors was bowled by Oshane Thomas who had picked a hat-trick the day before. Gurbaz hit his second delivery for a six. In almost every over that followed, Gurbaz hit a six. By the time he got out in the eighth over, he had already hit five sixes and six boundaries from his 32 ball knock of 70 runs.  Like Zazai, Gurbaz's knock was also almost half of his team’s total.