Outstanding Karim keeps series alive for Afghanistan

Karim Janat delivered arguably the best performance of his career so far as he helped Afghanistan beat West Indies by 41 runs to level the three-match T20I series at Ekana Stadium Lucknow with the final match to be played tomorrow.  

Janat was instrumental both with the bat and the ball for the men in blue registering the second-best figures in T20Is for Afghanistan as he returned 11/5 off his 4 overs capitalizing on a well-played cameo of 24 runs earlier.

Earlier, skipper Rashid Khan won the toss and opted to bat first in a must-win match for his team. The opening pair of Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz gave a great start of 42 runs before getting out on successive deliveries by Kesric Williams in the fifth over of the innings.

The wickets continued to fall at regular intervals for Afghanistan though Karim Janat, Gulbadin Naib and Najibullah Zadran batted well scoring 26, 24 and 20 runs respectively. Afghanistan managed 147/7 in the allotted 20 overs setting a target of 148 for the Windies to chase.

In response, West Indies could only manage 106/8 as Karim Janat registered the second-best figures for Afghanistan in the T20Is with a fifer giving away only 11 runs. Janat’s five-wicket haul was the fourth one for Afghanistan in the format with Rashid Khan picking two and Samiullah Shinwari the other one.

The series decider between both teams will be played tomorrow at 6 PM AFT.