Mohammad Shahzad slammed the most significant hundred of his career to take Afghanistan to 252 for eight against India, lightening up the dead 'Super Four' rubber of the Asia Cup.
While the other batsmen struggled, it seemed the unconventional Shahzad was batting on a different surface, hammering 11 fours and as many as seven sixes. Later, the experienced Mohammad Nabi produced a handy knock of 64 off 56 balls to help Afghanistan put up a competitive total.
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The undisputed star of the evening was wicketkeeper batsman Shahzad, who was no short of inspiration in the middle with his role model M.S. Dhoni standing behind the stumps.
While his opening partner Javed Ahmadi was even struggling to get a single, Shahzad thoroughly entertained the crowd with a barrage of big hits. He was particularly ruthless against the rookie Indian pacers Khaleel Ahmed, Siddharth Kaul and debutant Deepak Chahar, who were played in place of the rested Jasprit Bumrah, Bhuvneshwar Kumar and Yuzvendra Chahal. Chahar had a forgettable debut even though he picked up a wicket.
The other Indian players rested for the game were captain Rohit Sharma and his opening partner Shikhar Dhawan. Lokesh Rahul and Manish Pandey replaced them in the playing XI and, as fate would have it, Dhoni stepped on the field to captain India for the 200th time.
The pacers were guilty of bowling too full and Shahzad made them pay for their mistakes. Most of his lofty shots were crossed-batted as he cleared his front foot to hit the huge sixes over deep mid-wicket.
He even had his luck on his side as he was dropped at mid-off enroute to his half-century. He surprisingly experienced the nervous 90s before finally reaching the three figures for the fifth time in ODIs, with a flick off Chahar towards the fine-leg boundary.
It was not a full-strength Indian bowling attack but that takes nothing away from Shahzad's sensational effort. His other ODI hundreds had come against Canada, Zimbabwe, Scotland and Netherlands.
Afghanistan would have been in deep trouble if it was not for Shahzad, who was running out of partners at one stage. Afghanistan were reeling at 82 for four from 65 for no loss after Indian spinners Kuldeep Yadav (2/38) and Ravindra Jadeja (3/46) came into play. The chinaman was even on a hat-trick.
Shahzad was then joined by Gulbadin Naib (15 off 46) and the two shared a 50-run stand for the fifth wicket.
After his dismissal, Nabi started plundering the bowlers, hitting four sixes and three boundaries to take help the team cross 250.
