Scotland 256 for 3 (Macleod 157*, Berrington 67, Mujeeb 2-47) beat Afghanistan 255 (Nabi 92, Najibullah 67, Wheal 3-36, Berrington 3-42) by seven wickets
(Cricinfo) It only took one match to affirm the wide-open nature of the World Cup Qualifier. In a spectacular opening-day heist, Scotland downed Afghanistan by seven wickets, with Calum MacLeod scoring his sixth ODI hundred and subjecting Rashid Khan, the world’s No. 1 ODI bowler, to one of his worst days as an international cricketer.
Chasing 256, Scotland got there with 16 balls to spare, with MacLeod scoring an unbeaten 157 off 146 balls. He scored 108 off 118 against Afghanistan’s other bowlers, and 49 off 31 against Rashid’s legspin, off which he hit eight of his 24 boundaries. Rashid finished with figures of 1 for 68 in nine overs – this was the first time he had ended up with an economy rate of above 7 in his 38-match ODI career. He also scored a first-ball duck. All this happened on a day when, at 19 years and 165 days, he became the youngest man to captain an ODI side.
MacLeod came in with Scotland 16 for 1; they lost their other opener two overs later to slip to 21 for 2. Both wickets had fallen to the mystery spin of Mujeeb Ur Rahman. It was here that Richie Berrington joined MacLeod. The two proceeded to add 208 in 223 balls, with MacLeod by far the dominant partner, Berrington scoring 67 off 95 balls before falling lbw to Rashid in the 43rd over of Scotland’s innings. By then, they only needed 27 off 44 balls, a task MacLeod and George Munsey completed with ease.
