Afghanistan vs United Arab Emirates, 28th Match, Group D, ICC Men's T20 World Cup 2026 - Commentary

After the South Africa heartbreak, it's points on the board for Afghanistan. Points on the board, but it could all be in waste if New Zealand beat Canada tomorrow. But they're living on hope and an upset. That's it for the match in Delhi. Change tabs and enjoy England's batting at the Eden Gardens in the afternoon match against Italy. For now, cheers and bye..

Rashid Khan - Happy to finish with a win, it's important to have points in a T20 WC. Hoping for the best (on chances of getting ahead in the tournament) - to restrict them under 160 was a good effort, we pulled things back, but we didn't do well in the first 10 overs. That's been a problem for us in all the games and something we need to work on. We know how aggressive he is (on Rahmanullah Gurbaz). He goes out with a positive mindset - it doesn't always work, but it's good for the team when he gets going. We've quite a lot of experience, Azmat has played a lot, Nabi is the most experienced guy in the team. It's always good to have experience and that's something most important. Yes, we should still have hope and chance (when asked if he was hoping for an upset from Canada tomorrow). Next game, you never know, it's a T20 game, we'll have to come up with a good brand of cricket, irrespective of the chances of making it to the Super-8. We want to make the country and our people proud and happy. 

Muhammad Waseem - To be honest, it was a good game. Boys fought well. We were short by 10-15 runs, with the ball, we gave 2-3 extra boundaries and that cost us the game. We lost two early wickets, but the way Alishan and Sohail batted was good. Ali got out at the wrong time and we fell short by 10-15 runs. We wanted to fight till the last ball, we were hungry for victory, excellent effort in the field by the boys. Last game against South Africa, it's a different ball-game, we'll come prepared to show the world our talent. 

Azmatullah Omarzai | Player of the Match - I'm very happy with my performance. I was trying to bowl in the hard length and hit the pitch hard. It was funny for us (on the first ball non-wicket). First ball was a wicket, but the ball didn't didn't carry and I took four wickets again. That first wicket got the momentum for us. When I went to bat, I looked at the scoreboard. There were a lot of balls for us. We needed to play straight and rotate the strike. And I was speaking to my partner, just play straight and we were waiting for the bad ball. It was a good game where everyone did really well and everyone did hard work (on the South Africa game), but the result did not work our way, but we came back really well and hope we will do it again in the next match.

UAE spinners at T20 WC 2026
Overs: 21
Runs conceded: 176
Wickets: 0
ER: 8.38
Dot%: 26.1%

They are the only team to not have a single wicket to spin in the competition so far.

Afghanistan chasing 140-plus targets at T20 WC
Matches: 15
Won: 4 (including today)
Lost: 10
Tied: 1 (Lost in double Super Over vs SA)

14:34 Local Time, 09:04 GMT, 14:34 IST: Heartbreak for UAE, but Afghanistan will be pretty relieved. They cling on to slim Super-8 hopes, but this win confirms South Africa's place in the next round, they become the third team after West Indies and India to get a 'Q' mark against their name. 160 was just about par on this pitch, but UAE made Afghanistan sweat. Rahmanullah Gurbaz was sent packing for a duck, Gulbadin Naib and Sediqullah Atal got started and failed to convert them into bigger scores. Ibrahim Zadran held on and made a half-century, but his dismissal brought UAE back into the contest. It needed a calm nerve and Azmatullah Omarzai had plenty of them - he backed up his 4-wicket haul with an unbeaten 21-ball 40 to haul his team out of trouble and into the points tally. Muhammad Arfan bowled well for his 2 wickets, but UAE probably will look at the mid-innings slump as the reason for the loss today. 

They need just 4 from the last over

17 needed off 12 balls. Still Afghanistan's match to lose?