The day of run-outs

Scotland's 19-year-old left-arm spinner Mark Watt started the match by bowling from round the wicket and well wide of the crease. Most of his deliveries saw his left foot land just inside the side crease and then the right one way wide and outside the pitch, making it a crossed-legged landing. Afghanistan opener Mohammad Shahzad provided his own version by crossing his legs on the second ball after the Powerplay ended, when Watt came round the wicket again and Shahzad plomped his right leg wide of the pitch to reverse-sweep the ball just wide of short third man for four.

Shahzad stated in the innings break, not for the first time, that a lot of his shots, especially the helicopter, are influenced by MS Dhoni. Shahzad unleashed many other shots during his innings such as the quick arm-jabs and the short-arm pulls that would remind one of Dhoni. The fifty celebration, though, that he displayed with his helmet off and arms lifted parallel to the ground are exactly how Shikhar Dhawan celebrates his milestones. Influenced by just one player or more?

Asghar Stanikzai didn't middle many shots during his fifty on Tuesday. And when he connected one properly in the 18th over, it hit the stumps at the non-striker's end. That was not it. The ball deflected towards the bowler, Alasdair Evans, and the non-striker, Mohammad Nabi, took off for a desperate run. Evans showed presence of mind and made use of the ground Nabi had covered by uprooting the stumps at the umpire's end as the bails had already been dislodged.

If the Nabi run-out wasn't enough, the Afghanistan innings saw another mix up, in the last over of their innings. On strike again, Stanikzai tried to scoop a full delivery from Josh Davey but failed to connect and took it on the body. He also refused to budge from within the crease even as Shafiqullah came face to face with him to collect runs in the last over. Wicketkeeper Shahzad threw the ball quickly to the bowler who effected an easy run-out even as Stanikzai and Shafiqullah had a conversation at the other end.

Not the one next to the wicketkeeper, the one that happens in the middle of the pitch and leads to a run-out. The tournament opener between Zimbabwe and Hong Kong had seen three run-outs and Afghanistan's innings had seen another two, but run-outs were not done for the day yet. Scotland, probably feeling left out, also provided one when Calum MacLeod drove one to deep extra cover but slipped just after he turned for the second run. MacLeod's partner, Matt Machan went ahead with the second and MacLeod had a tiny chance of still making it as the throw came at the wrong end. The bowler collected it and nearly had a shy at his own end before realising Machan had made it and threw it to the wicketkeeper to complete the sixth run-out of the day.