Asghar Afghan equals MS Dhoni's huge T20I record

This was also Asghar's 41st win in T20I cricket as captain, and he is now tied with MS Dhoni at the top of the list with captains with most wins in the shortest format.

Afghanistan captain Asghar Afghan on Friday equalled MS Dhoni's huge T20I record. In the 2nd T20I at Abu Dhabi, the Sean Williams led-side suffered a 45-run defeat against Asghar's side. With the win, Afghanistan took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the series, with one match still to be played.

Asghar Afghan and MS Dhoni. (File)

This was also Asghar's 41st win in T20I cricket as captain, and he is now tied with MS Dhoni at the top of the list of captains with the most wins in the shortest format.

But while Dhoni had won 41 games in 72 matches as captain with a winning percentage of 59.28 percent, Asghar has so far won 41 games as skipper in 51 matches and has a winning percentage of 81.37.

Though, it must be pointed out that Dhoni, in his tenure as captain, faced higher-ranked teams as compared to Afghanistan's captain. Under Dhoni's captaincy, India also won the 2007 T20I World Cup.

Speaking after the match, Asghar said: "T20s are very important for us with the World Cup coming. Morale is high if you win. Today Karim and Usman partnership was really good."

The losing captain Sean Williams said: "Very disappointed. Thought we started off well. The opening spells from the bowlers were reasonably good. But getting two overs that were hit for more than 20 hurt us really badly.

"Then losing four wickets in the powerplay also a big blow. Can go back and look at the shot selection including myself. When you lose like this it's important about how you get back up. Winning a game from here and then getting on the plane will be a huge thing for us. Maybe there's a possibility of that happening, it's been discussed (him moving up the order along with Raza)," he added.

The two teams will meet again on Saturday for the final T20I.