Published: February 16, 2026 at 4:26 pm
Azmatullah Omarzai’s all-round performance helped Afghanistan stay in contention for the Super Eight stage with a five-wicket win over UAE in New Delhi on Monday. This, incidentally, is Afghanistan first win of this ICC T20 World Cup 2026 campaign.
Afghanistan have climbed to No 3 in Group D and are battling with New Zealand and UAE for the final qualification spot from their group. Having won their first three matches, South Africa are through to the Super Eight stage of the tournament.
“Happy to finish up with the win, always important to have a win at the World Cup and let’s hope for the best in the rest of the competition. We bowled really well in the last 10 overs, we missed our lines earlier and they played well. First 10 overs we didn’t bowl as good as we should have. Need to improve in the first 10 overs and be more consistent. We all know how aggressive he (Gurbaz) is, I feel like that’s how he scores runs, to go with an aggressive mindset and dominate in the powerplay. It does work and sometimes (it doesn’t). It’s always important for players like Gurbaz to remain there longer (because) it helps the team. We have got quite good experience, with Nabi and Omarzai… they have played a lot in these conditions. Mujeeb is very accurate with the line and it’s always good to have experienced players around the team,” said Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan.
On the last game, he said: “Still have a little bit of hope, we can make it to the next stage, and we just need to come up with a positive mindset. Even if we don’t make it to the next round, we want to play with the same brand of cricket and (make our nation proud).”
After electing to field first, Afghanistan restricted UAE to 160 for 9 in 20 overs. It was touch and go, but Afghanistan chased down the target with four balls and five wickets to spare.
Junaid Siddique struck early for UAE, dismissing the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz on the second ball of the innings. His incredible opening spell read 1 for 7 in two overs.
Afghanistan put on 41 for 2 in the powerplay, but it has been a stop-start innings by them. Opener Ibrahim Zadran helped them recover from early wickets with a well-paced half-century. He struck six fours and a six but fell just when it looked like they were getting a move on in their chase.
Omarzai, who had snapped four wickets, then dominated with the bat, hitting two fours and three sixes for an unbeaten 40 to take his team over the line.
“I am very happy with my performance. The wicket was a bit low, I was trying to bowl the hard length and I got the success. I just looked at the scoreboard, and I knew we had many balls left, wanted to rotate strike and focus on playing straight and wait for the poor deliveries and that approach helped while being out with Darwaish. Hope to replicate the same performance in the next game,” said Omarzai, who was the Player of the Match.
Afghanistan bowlers were in form and gave the team the perfect start, claiming to early wickets to reduce UAE to 13 for 2.
Alishan Sharafu and Sohaib Khan mounted fightback with an 84-run partnership. While the in-form Sharafu scored 40, Sohaib was the standout performer with 68 off 48 balls and carted the ball for six fours and four sixes.
However, the innings couldn’t gain traction once Sharafu was back in the pavilion. From 97 for 3, UAE crashed to 160 for 9 in 20 overs. Pacer Omarzai pegged UAE back with timely wickets, finishing with an incredible 4 for 15. Mujeeb Ur Rahman also claimed the important wickets of Sharafu and captain Muhammad Waseem.
“It’s a very good game, boys fought well. We were 15 runs short; we gave two or three extra boundary balls and that cost us the game. We lost two early wickets but after that, the way Alishan and Sohaib batted, they played good knocks. Felt we were 10-15 runs short and they got out at the wrong time. We were trying to fight till the last ball. We are hungry for the victory, fielding was excellent and I am happy with the effort. Last game… again, it’s a different opposition, we will come with different plans, we will show our talent to the world,” said UAE captain Muhammad Waseem.
Brief scores: UAE 160 for nine in 20 overs (Alishan Sharafu 40, Sohaib Khan 68; Azmatullah Omarzai 4/15, Mujeeb Ur Rahman 2/31) lost to Afghanistan 162 for five in 19.2 overs (Ibrahim Zadran 53, Darwish Rasooli 33, Azmatullah Omarzai 33 not out; Junaid Siddique 2/23, Muhammad Arfan 2/30).
