Afghan all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai shattered the national record for quickest T20I half-century against Hong Kong on Tuesday (September 9). Scoring in the first match of the 2025 Asia Cup at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in the UAE, he hit a 20-ball half-century, bettering Mohammad Nabi and Gulbadin Naib's shared record of 21. Atal & Omarzai Shine in Afghanistan’s T20 Asia Cup Win Sediqullah Atal and Azmatullah Omarzai hit half-centuries each to take Afghanistan to 188 for 6 in the first match of men's T20 Asia Cup. Hong Kong had their moment, their spinners notably taking slow conditions well enough to tease out their more illustrious rivals. But the class difference ultimately asserted itself as Yasin Murtaza's team dropped catches and made misfields to sabotage their chances. Sediqullah has looked up to each of this trio of T20I half-centuries in his last four innings, and as good as he carried on the middle, standing firm at the crease and mostly managing with the absence of pace, he was also helped by three dropped chances. A player who could've been sent back in the very first over eventually batted till the end to reach 73 from 52. Also Read | SA20 2025-26 Fixtures Out: MI Cape Town vs Durban to Kick Off Season 4 Murtaza was party to all three lives Sediqullah received twice losing the catch himself and once having to see it slip down off his own bowling. He did his best to compensate, the three Hong Kong spinners providing the ball with so little pace but so much air that this game seemed straight out of the 90s. Therefore, the more contemporary T20 batsman could not adapt. Murtaza, Ehsan Khan and Kinchit Shah took 3 for 75 for 11 overs. But with the introduction of pace in the 17th over, the game was altered with Atal and Omarzai firing at Ayush Shukla. Afghanistan added 69 runs from the last four overs with Omarzai registering his maiden T20I half-century. From the easy clear-the-front-leg slog to the cheeky ramp over the keeper, the Afghanistan allrounder has displayed fine range on a tricky batting surface and concluded with a strike rate of 252.38.