Omarzai's all-round brilliance hands Afghanistan their first win of the World Cup

Even as the smog grew thicker in the Delhi afternoon, Azmatullah Omarzai delivered an all-round performance of immense clarity to give Afghanistan their first win of this T20 World Cup. UAE had them on the mat, huffing and puffing, with 52 needed off the last five overs. The required rate, routinely achieved in the age of modern T20s, looked bigger on a pitch that had stayed slow and grippy throughout.

Omarzai eased the nerves of a close contest - Afghanistan had tied three of their previous six T20Is in India, after all - to seal the match with 6, 4, 4 off his final three balls. He finished on a 21-ball 40*, with a strike rate of 190.47 on a day when Darwish Rasooli's 143 was their next best. Consequently, Afghanistan's careful approach had dragged them into the final over of their chase. Two balls into it, Omarzai's four over covers finished it off.

Despite scoring an under-par 160, UAE sensed a close contest brewing when Junaid Siddique had Rahmanullah Gurbaz mistiming a lofted drive to backward point on the second ball of the innings. Ibrahim Zadran's consolidation was back to its best after a quiet start to this World Cup. He brought up a 37-ball fifty to keep them in the contest.

UAE's bowlers - particularly Muhammad Arfan (2 for 39) - used the slowness of the pitch to great effect, tempering Afghanistan's ability to hit across the line or get under the ball. Arfan removed Zadran in the 14th over, right as Afghanistan would have needed their set batter the most as the death overs approached.

With Rasooli for company at the other end, however, Omarzai stitched together a 43-run partnership off just 4.2 overs to put Afghanistan's feet to the pedal when they needed it. Siddique returned in the 18th over to take out Rasooli's middle stump, but signalled an appeal for calm to his teammates when celebrating. His caution was well-earned, because by the time he came back to bowl the final over, he had just four runs in the bank to defend. Two balls into the 20th, the match would be finished.

Earlier, UAE did not look like they would be able to take the match to its final over. Not when Aryansh Sharma and Muhammed Waseem had fallen in back-to-back overs at the start of their innings, leaving UAE at 13 for 2. Omarzai had started his day with the first of these overs itself: with some prodigious swing off the new ball, he had taken out Aryansh edging behind to the keeper.

Alishan Sharafu (40 off 31) and Sohaib Khan (68 off 38) orchestrated a comeback that saw them reach 55 for 2 in the powerplay. They were particularly brutal on Ziaur Rahman, who slotted into the side in place of Fazalhaa Farooqi. He went for 16 runs off his first over, and finished with unflattering figures of 0 for 43.

The two picked their bowlers throughout their 84-run partnership. They also dispatched Noor Ahmed for 35 runs off his three wicketless bowlers. By the time Sharafu fell to a miscued shot off Mujeeb Ur Rahman while dancing down the ground, UAE had recovered to the relative safety of 97 for 3 in their 12th over.

Their acceleration was hampered by a double-wicket over when Omarzai was reintroduced to the attack in the 15th over. He landed his second ball outside off and had it jag back in just enough to trim Syed Haider's off-stump bail. Then, he went around the wicket to left-hander Harshit Kaushik and banged it in away from the batter, right in the blockhole. Kaushik reached for it to play a drive, but only edged the ball back to the keeper.

Rashid Khan came on to bowl his last over in the 16h. He had been economical but unthreatening, likely to end the match still sitting on 699 T20 wickets. But Arfan decided to get on his knees while shuffling deep into his off side, and tried to scoop him from in front of middle stump.

The ball went somewhere that would have given him a run or two. But by then, Arfan had hurtled off balance and crashed into his stumps. Rashid barely brought out a celebration as his team-mates swarmed him for the 700th time in the format.

If anything, his lack of a reaction was bemusement at the entire sequence of events. What mattered in the end, though, was the wicket that closed out another tidy spell of 1 for 24 and snuffed out UAE's momentum heading into the death overs. Just enough for Afghanistan to cross the finish line when they would come out to bat.

Afghanistan are now on two points, unlikely to make it to Super Eights unless a string of results fall their way. But in Delhi, they had done just enough to stay alive in this World Cup too.