Afghanistan win to set up virtual semi-final

For the fourth time in a row, Afghanistan chased, and today they chased well, winning easily by 6 wickets and 45 balls remaining over The Netherlands. This win, along with Scotland’s victory over Kenya, means Afghanistan will play Scotland on Friday in a virtual semi-final – whoever wins goes through.

As opposed to Afghanistan’s previous matches, they won the toss today, but still decided to bowl first. Khaliq Dad continued his good form, picking up the first three wickets, including two in two balls, to leave The Netherlands 57-3. The hat-trick ball was a good one as well but a loud shout for lbw was turned down.

A steady stand followed before Asgher Stanikzai, an irregular bowler, got an lbw decision to go his way.

The Netherlands stuttered from here but Tom Cooper, an Australian playing for the Dutch, held the innings together with a hundred. Some good death bowling from Hamid Hassan kept The Netherlands down 202-7 from their 50 overs. Khalid Dad the best of the bowlers with 3-30 from his 10 overs. Dawlat Ahmadzai, who replaced Shapoor Zardan, was disappointing, going for 53 runs without taking a wicket.

203 was needed for Afghanistan, a gettable total, and the lowest score the Afghans have had to chase, but, with the pitch having variable bounce, it was going to take some effort.

The early stages of the innings showed the difficult nature of the pitch, of which two Afghan wickets fell. Noor Ali was dismissed with one that scuttled along the pitch, and Shabir Noori, in the same over, went to leave one, but the ball bounced more than expected and took the glove on its way to the wicket-keeper. 8-2, at this point.

Thankfully for Afghanistan a partnership developed. Karim Sadiq, who, in another change to the batting line-up, was promoted to opening the innings, and Mohammad Shahzad, probably Afghanistan’s best stroke-player, batted sensibly to leave them in a comfortable position of 92-2.

However, they both departed around the same time, Sadiq, ironically since he is such an aggressor, went for 26 runs off 69 balls; Shahzad fell for an excellent 55 runs off 63 balls.

A partnership was needed to calm the Afghanistan nerves, and that’s what they got – and more –  as Nawroz Mangal and Asghar Stanikzai quickly lifted them to victory. Mangal, the captain, with lots of cheeky paddle shots, was the star here with 67 off 53 ball, including the winning runs.

For a second successive match, despite being victorious in both, a player from the other team won the man of the match. Oh well. The only thing that mattered for Afghanistan was the win, which has knocked the Dutch out of contention, and now a chance to meet Ireland in the final on Sunday. If they beat Scotland, that is.

For scorecard, click here.

As said, Scotland beat today against Kenya. It was a close, low-scoring match, but Scotland just prevailed by 6 runs. In the other match, Ireland sealed their place in the final, as they eased past Canada by 5 wickets.