Asia Cup 2018: 4 Star Performers for Afghanistan
Afghanistan were playing for the first time in the Asia Cup and it was a proud moment for the team. Prior to the tournament, their skipper Asghar Afghan had reckoned that the team wasn't in the Asia Cup to just make up numbers. As it turned out, he was right about it. The Afghan players showcased a brilliant display of sporting spirit and challenged their opponents in a way very few had expected.
They had to face Sri Lanka in their first match and they were clearly not favourites against the five-time champions. But to everyone's surprise, they thrashed Sri Lanka by 91 runs and knocked them out of the tournament. In the next match, their performance even got better and they defeated Bangladesh by a huge margin of 136 runs.
In the Super Four stage, the lack of experience in tense moments probably got the better of them twice - against Pakistan and Bangladesh - and cost them a place in the final but their 'never give up' attitude was appreciated by the whole cricketing fraternity. They ended their campaign on a high by holding India, the defending champion, to a tie. It was their biggest result in ODIs, by their own admission.
The Afghanistan team, most certainly, took their performance to a whole new level and so did some of their players. Here, in this article, we will discuss the 4 most successful players for Afghanistan who made an impact in this Asia Cup.
#1 Rashid Khan
Rashid Khan was the talk of the town before the start of the tournament. Being the backbone of the team's bowling unit, Afghanistan's performance was heavily dependent on him. Well, he once again showed why everyone talks so highly of him. He contributed to his team in every possible manner whether it was bowling, batting or fielding. Against Sri Lanka, he took 2 wickets and aided a run-out.
In the second match against Bangladesh, he again took 2 wickets but his batting heroics made the headlines this time. He smashed a brilliant 57-off-32 balls and helped Afghanistan reach a decent total.
In the last match against India, he once again came to the rescue when his team needed to defend 7 runs off final over. He got the wicket of Jadeja on the fifth delivery of the over and the match ended in a tie.
Overall Performance:
Matches - 5, Runs - 87, Wickets - 10, Bow. Average - 17.20