Asghar And Ali heroic helped host Kuwait to surpassed Maldives with huge margin of 105 runs. Kuwait started a campaign with a dominant show over Maldives.
Despite of getting early breakthrough, Maldives failed to pick up wickets on regular interval and conceded 170 runs inside 20 overs. Mohamed Saafee provided ideal start for Maldives as he picked up 2 wickets in very first over of the inning. He sent back Kuwait’s skipper, Muhammad Kashif in very second ball of his spell. Then, Abid Mushtaf was found in front of stump in the first ball he faced, bowled by Saafee. After being reduced to 1 run for 2 wickets, Usman Waheed and Ali Zaheer coped under pressure to lead their inning forward. They shared all important 60 runs for third wickets. Waheed smashed 32 runs off 35 runs with the help of 2 fours and a hit for maximum. His fellow, Zaheer scored 24 runs consuming 32 balls with a four and six respectively. After then, some intensified fielding effort brought back Maldives back on track and reduced Kuwait to 88 runs for 4 wickets. After then, Asghar and Sandaruwan were batting on crease with 38 balls on their bank. Then they turned-on their destructive mode and added unbeaten 82 runs for fifth wickets. Asghar topped Kuwait’s batting card with 38ball- 66 runs. He slammed 2 four and 5 sixes to retained strike rate of 173.68. Sandaruwan provided him a perfect company with 29 runs from 16 balls. He smashed 2 sixes to propelled their total towards to 170 runs with the lost of 4 wickets. Saafee was pick up the bowler for Maldives who procured the applaudable figure of (4-0-26-2). Farhath and Hamid also succeed to hold on with a wicket each.
After finishing on high, Kuwait continued their momentum and never let Maldives to returned back on game. Shafraz Jalee (02) returned back during second over of the second inning, who were immediately followed by his opening deputy, Abdullah Shahid (08). Mohammed Naseer was the reason behind their departure as he sent back both Maldives’s openers cheaply. His bowling partner, Imran Ali was riding high on sky and was unplayable today with mouth-watering figure of (2.4-1-2-5). His 5 wickets consist of Cooray (09), Rasheed (06), Adam (00), Saafee (00), Humid (00). Where his bowling duo, Naseer picked up 3 wickets followed by a wicket for Kashif. Kashif victimised Farhath (08). Sublime bowling from Kuwait resulted Maldives’s batting collapsed and they bundled-out in tiny total 65 runs within16 overs.
Host Kuwait started their campaign with a win as they along with Maldives, Bahrain, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, and UAE will fulfilled required 5 teams quota for ICC World T20 Asia Qualifier (A).
