How much can a team really score in a T20 game after losing their first four wickets for five runs in the first 20 balls? On Thursday, the answer was 221 for 7.
Afghanistan reeled at 5 for 4 after 3.2 overs against Zimbabwe after being asked to bat first in the second T20I in Sharjah with quick bowler Kundai Matigimu on a hat-trick. An hour or so later, Afghanistan had scored more than any team has from that position in the history of T20 cricket. That they could was down to Azmatullah Omarzai.
When he had arrived to face the hat-trick ball, Afghanistan were certain to be bowled out for the second time in two matches the series. This time, though, it looked like it would happen much sooner than in 19.5 overs, which was the case in the first T20I, after Ijaz Ahmad Ahmadzai sparked a revival from 66 for 5 with a 22-ball 52.
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The pitch for this contest was different from that one. This one had a good covering of grass - almost three millimetres - and had moisture, which required the batters to rein in their attacking instincts early on against the quicks. All of that had compelled Sikandar Raza, the Zimbabwe captain, to insert Afghanistan after winning the toss.
Raza had a big smile on his face as he waited with his team-mates in the dugout to walk out to the middle. His smile became wider as wickets tumbled without his bowlers needing to do much. The only wicket in which the conditions played a role was when Matigimu, the right-arm quick, banged the ball back of a length and angled it across Shahidullah, the left-hand batter, who edged it behind.
But this pitch was not as tricky as the one in Tarouba on which Afghanistan - in the semi-final of the 2024 T20 World Cup - were bowled out for 56 by South Africa. But it was natural for the mind to wander to that match looking at the scoreboard.
The moment called for maturity and Omarzai was the man for the job.
He might only be 26 but he is one of the most experienced players in this young Afghanistan dugout and is one of the premier allrounders in the T20 game. He knows that there is always enough time to resurrect a collapsing innings.
Omarzai left the hat-trick ball for the keeper to collect and settled himself in by nudging the ball around. He had crawled to 5 off 11 balls before thumping boundaries off consecutive balls - a six and a four - in the eighth over, bowled by Ernest Masuku. It was an upturn, but the wicket of Sediqullah Atal at the start of the ninth over meant Afghanistan were only 45 for 5 at the halfway mark with only seven runs coming from the ninth and tenth overs.
The next man in was Ahmadzai. "We were under pressure when Ijaz joined me in the middle and I told him that we needed to go for boundaries, otherwise the pressure will continue to build on us," Omarzai said after the match.
The two smacked a six each off Ryan Burl's over right after drinks, which yielded 16 runs. The next two overs were taken for 25 with only two coming off Omarzai's bat as Ahmadzai smoked a six and a four each off Raza and Masuku. That Ahmadzai would be the first to unleash the assault was part of the plan, as Omarzai said: "I enjoyed batting with Ijaz and I told him to play the way he did in the last game. I told him, 'smash from the first ball and don't take any pressure - just play your natural game'."
Omarzai had a forgettable outing with the bat in the last match as he was beaten by Raza, who a catch of his own bowling after befuddling the batter with a wrong'un. In that game, Omarzai could have helped Afghanistan recover but failed.
On Thursday, however, Omarzai decided to take it upon himself. "Watching him [Ahmadzai] hit boundaries gave me confidence and I tried to keep that momentum [from my end] so they don't have an opportunity to create pressure on us," he said. "I tried to complement Ijaz by smashing boundaries from my end."
What was supposed to be a support role soon turned into the lead act as Omarzai bludgeoned the Zimbabwe bowlers, sending them all the way from extra cover to deep square-leg with ruthless ease. Though he had picked up speed after the tenth over, Omarzai truly took over from the 15th over as he plundered 19 runs off Raza, two sixes and a four, to bring up his half-century in 31 balls.
His next 50 required only 13, as he dispatched Matigimu for consecutive sixes - over long-on and extra cover - in the next over and thrashed Brad Evans for 27 runs in the 17th, hitting three sixes and two fours in the first five balls of the over.
The boundary of the fifth delivery, a carve behind point which pierced the gap with great precision, brought Omarzai his first century in the format. His most stunning shot of the over, however, was the flick towards midwicket on the last ball, which he played with great calm - totally different from the mayhem of the five previous balls. It provided a peek into Omarzai's mind, demonstrating how at ease he was in the middle. He picked his balls to attack, instead of swinging at everything.
Raza's grin had long vanished as he looked on in horror at what was unfolding.
He walked up to his bowlers in between deliveries, but each run in the sensational stand - worth 142, the best for the sixth wicket and lower in T20I history - pushed the game out of Zimbabwe's reach. Omarzai contributed 87 off 32 in the stand.
A total of 176 runs were plundered off the last ten overs, with the on-field umpires regularly bringing out replacement balls as sixes sailed out of the small stadium. Ahmadzai raced to his second consecutive half-century in just 26 balls, smashing three boundaries in four legal deliveries before he holed out to long-off on the last ball of the 18th, bowled by Masuku.
Omarzai followed him back to the pavilion in the next over but not before smoking Raza for two gigantic sixes over midwicket and down the ground. Eventually, it was Raza, again, who accounted for him, this time with a tossed-up delivery which was ballooned into the night sky for long-off to pouch. Raza walked up to Omazrzai to congratulate him on his innings and his team-mates rose in the dugout to give him a standing ovation as he walked back.
A last-over carnage ensued as Rashid Khan struck four sixes and took Afghanistan past 200 and eventually to 221.
Omarzai returned for the final act in the run chase, which had got off to the perfect start as Innocent Kaia and Brian Bennett took 16 runs of Fareed Ahmed's first over and motored along at 11 in the first three overs.
Watching Kaia, who led the Zimbabwean reply with 25 off 13, charge towards him, Omarzai pulled his length back to induce a top-edge to be safely held at deep square-leg.
This was never going to be an ordinary match for the Afghan supporters as their greatest superstar - Rashid - was a wicket away from becoming the first man to bag 200 T20I wickets. That came in the ninth over as he had Tadiwanashe Marumani trapped in front.
But Rashid's landmark was almost a footnote in this game.
There are not many innings, as Omarzai's was, that create such a profound impact, after all.