In Omarzai, Afghanistan Have Another Trailblazer

The team were once known for Rashid Khan's exploits, but the 24-year-old is stepping up at crunch moments for Afghans

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DUBAI: Azmatullah Omarzai fondly narrates a story from his street cricket days when he made the most of a lucky break by picking up late wickets with his offbreaks to impress his elder brothers.

A decade later, Omarzai replicated the same trick at the highest stage, by picking up a spate of late wickets in Lahore to close the door on England's Champions Trophy hopes and keep Afghanistan in the hunt for the semi-finals.

Omarzai, now runs in with a much longer run up, swings the new ball and has blossomed into his country's leading fast bowling all-rounder. But the spotlight was turned on him on Wednesday night because he pulled out his old tricks, namely slow off-cutters — one banged in short to get the all-important wicket of Joe Root (120, 111b) and another off a slightly fuller delivery to break Jamie Overton's 32 (28b) resistance. He also picked up the wickets of Phil Salt and Jos Buttler.

Omarzai's five-wicket haul proved instrumental in Afghanistan's successful defense of 325 at the same Gaddafi stadium where England had failed to defend 351 against Australia a few nights ago. It was one of the only two 5-fers registered in the tournament which has seen 11 hundreds scored.