After solid showings against Bangladesh and Sri Lanka and a historic victory against Scotland, Afghanistan lost steam and couldn’t compete against the host nations of Australia and New Zealand. Maybe they could have done better against already eliminated England in the final match, but let’s not forget Afghanistan have been eliminated at that point already as well.

Afghanistan have shown they have a seriously good and even versatile attack in Hamid Hassan, Dawlat Zadran, Shapoor Zadran. These three will definitely be the core of the team in the years to come as Afghanistan try to build the other aspects of their game, most notably the batting.

Afghanistan’s batting failed them massively and they ended the tournament as the worst batting team. Afghanistan’s batting strike-rate of 60 was also the poorest in the tournament, indicating that the line-up was always under pressure as wickets fell regularly.

In order to improve further, Afghanistan will need to work on their batting and try to play the top opposition more often.

Afghanistan won their first match in the 2015 ICC Cricket World Cup as they defeated Scotland by 1 wicket with 3 balls remaining. The match was so intense and interesting that cricket fans all over the world tuned in to their TV sets to watch the match. The match trend #AFGvSCO became the no. 1 twitter trend worldwide for several hours during and after the match. Even the star player of the match i.e. Shenwari became one of the top twitter trends worldwide. Today’s match was historic on many fronts. Not only Afghanistan won their first ever ICC World Cup match but their performance in the match was also a reflection of the perseverance that the team and the players have been going through these all these years in spite of all adversities.

Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi won the toss and elected to field first. After losing a couple of early wickets, Scotland provided some resistance. However, Afghanistan bowlers led by Shapoor Zadran (4 wickets for 38 runs in 10 overs) and Dawlat Zadran (3 wickets for 29 runs in 10 overs) kept taking wickets at regular intervals and restricted Scotland to 210 runs in 50 overs. Matt Machan, Majid Haq, Alaisdar Evans, Kyle Koetzer and Richie Berrington were the top run scorers for Scotland with scores of 31 runs, 31 runs, 28 runs, 25 runs and 25 runs respectively. Hamid Hassan, Gulbadin Naib and Mohammad Nabi were the other wicket takers for Afghanistan and scalped each wicket each.

Afghanistan opener Javed Ahmadi (51 runs off 51 balls) provided a solid start to the Afghanistan innings. However, a couple of wickets fell on the other end after which the star of today’s match i.e. Samiullah Shenwari came to the crease. Javed Ahmadi departed when the scoreline was 85 runs for 3 wickets. And this resulted in a sudden collapse of the Afghanistan middle order as they were reduced to 97 runs for 7 wickets and defeat almost seemed imminent. But Samiullah Shenwari led an extraordinary fightback and resilience as he scored 96 runs off 147 balls. Shenwari missed out on his century by only 4 runs and departed at 46.5 overs with Afghanistan at 192 runs for 9 wickets. Afghanistan needed 20 runs in 19 balls at that time with only the last batting pair on the crease. But Hamid Hassan (15 runs off 39 balls) and Shapoor Zadran (12 runs off 10 balls) kept their head cool and reached the target in style as they scored 211 runs with 3 balls still remaining. Richie Berrington took 4 wickets for Scotland while Josh Davey and Alaisdar Evans chimed in with 2 each.

Afghanistan Cricket Team has been growing consistently through this ICC Cricket World Cup. They started the World Cup with a humiliating 105 runs defeat against Bangladesh. Then they gave a tough fight to Sri Lanka in their next match. And today they finally won their first match in the ICC Cricket World Cup. The team must now work hard and keep the momentum going in their next matches. They are now ranked at 4th position in Pool A ahead of established teams like England and Sri Lanka. Each “Pool” would have four teams moving in to the quarter finals of the 2015 ICC World Cup. The team has already achieved a cult status with fans all over the world. And if they remain consistent in the next few matches, they could rewrite the pages of history and achieve the impossible. So, hope for the best and best of luck to the team.

Afghanistan played extremely well in their 3rd World Cup match as they nearly outplayed Sri Lanka at University Oval Grounds in Dunedin, New Zealand today. Sri Lankan captain Angelo Mathews won the toss and put Afghanistan to bat. Afghanistan batsmen were far more disciplined today and there were useful contributions with the bat throughout the Afghan batting order. Asghar Stanikzai was the top scorer for Afghanistan with 54 runs off 57 balls. Samiullah Shenwari (38 runs off 70 balls), Mirwais Ashraf (28 runs off 32 balls), Javed Ahmadi (24 runs off 23 balls) and Mohammad Nabi (21 runs off 27 balls) were other major contributors with the bat as the Afghanistan team was bowled out for 232 runs in 49.4 overs. Lasith Malinga and Angelo Mathews took 3 wickets each while Lakmal took two.

Afghanistan bowlers started off extremely well as both Sri Lankan openers were out for golden ducks. In fact, Sri Lanka became only the second team in ODI history to have both the openers out for golden ducks in the same ODI. Former Lankan skipper Kumar Sangakkara also went out cheaply and was soon followed by Dimuth Karunaratne to the pavilion. However, former skipper Mahela Jayawardene and current skipper Angelo Mathews held the Sri Lankan innings together with a 126 runs partnership. Jayawardene got his first century of the 2015 World Cup while Mathews scored 44 runs. Thisara Perera contributed at the end with a quickfire 47 runs off 26 balls as Sri Lanka reached 236 runs in 48.2 overs. Hamid Hassan was the pick of the Afghan bowlers as he took 3 wickets for 45 runs. Dawlat Zadran and Shapoor Dadran were the other wicket takers as they took both the openers.

Mahela Jayawardena was th Man of the Match.

Many Afghanistan cricket players are active on Twitter nowadays. Twitter has now become the easiest way to follow and connect to your favorite players and celebrities. So, we have compiled a list of the official twitter accounts of Afghanistan players and related officials. Many of them are verified twitter accounts while some are not. We have tried our best to keep only authentic twitter accounts of the respective player or official. However, there might be a few mistakes in case of unverified players. The complete list of twitter profiles is posted below. If you know any other Afghanistan national cricket team player with an official twitter account missing in the list, please feel free to post a comment below so that we can add the same. Similarly, if you find any of the twitter accounts listed to be fake, please inform us so that we can remove the same. Hope you all remember our official twitter account i.e. @afghanicricket. Please follow us too.

Afghanistan lost to Bangladesh by 105 runs in their debut match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Afghanistan has qualified in the 50 overs ICC World Cup for the first time this year. However, the first match turned out to a bit of a dampener for the Afghanistan cricket team as Bangladesh defeated them by 105 runs.

Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and decided to bat first. Afghanistan bowlers started well and restricted the Bangladeshi openers Anamul Haque (29 runs off 55 balls) and Tamim Iqbal (19 runs off 42 balls) from scoring runs briskly in the initial overs. Bangladesh had only scored 52 runs losing 2 wickets when Anamul Haque got out in the 17th over. However, the Bangladesh middle order provided both stability and pace to their innings as they reached 267 runs in their allotted 50 overs. Wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and allrounder Shakib Al Hasan were the highest scorers for Bangladesh with scores of 71 runs off 56 balls and 63 runs off 51 balls respectively. Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Aftab Alam and Mirwais Ashraf took 2 wickets each for Afghanistan while Mohammad Nabi scalped one.

Afghanistan had a terrible start as they lost their first 3 wickets for only 3 runs. Mohammad Nabi (44 runs off 43 balls) and Samiullah Shenwari (42 runs off 75 balls) tried to give some stability and build up the innings. But other wickets fell cheaply as Afghanistan were bowled out for only 162 runs in 42.5 overs. Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza scalped 3 wickets while Shakib Al Hasan took 2 wickets. Mushfiqur Rahim was declared the player of the match.

Afghanistan defeated UAE by 14 runs today in a warmup match for the 2015 ICC cricket World Cup. Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and decided to bat. Both the openers Javed Ahmadi and Usman Ghani went out cheaply scoring only 12 and 11 runs respectively. Nawroz Mangal and Asghar Stanikzai followed with scores of 16 and 33 respectively. Samiullah Shenwari scored the highest runs and provided stability by scoring 58 runs off 80 balls. Then the rest of the Afghanistan batsmen consolidated on the strong base and scored runs briskly to help Afghanistan move towards a winning total. Mohammad Nabi scored 30 runs at a run a ball. This was followed by Najibullah Zadran, Mirwais Ashraf and Gulbadin Naib who scored quickfire 46 runs off 39 balls, 34 runs in 17 balls and 24 runs in 10 balls respectively. Afghanistan scored 308 runs for 9 wickets in 50 overs. U.A.E. bowler Amjad Javed scalped 4 Afghanistan wickets while Krishna Chandran and Mohammad Naveed took 2 wickets each.

U.A.E. batsmen started well in their innings and the openers Amjad Ali and Andri Berenger scored 26 runs In 24 balls and 39 runs in 40 balls respectively. Their no.3 and no.4 batsmen scored even better. Krishna Chandran scored 49 runs off 80 balls while Khurram Khan scored 86 runs off 70 balls. At this time, it almost looked that U.A.E. was heading for an easy win. But then Afghanistan bowlers struck back and finished off the middle the bottom order with their precise and disciplined bowling in their later spells. Except Swapnil Patil, Rohan Mustafa and Amjad Javed, none of the remaining U.A.E. batsmen could even cross double digits as they were bowled out for 294 runs in 48.2 overs. Captain Mohammad Nabi was the most economical of the Afghan bowlers as he took 2 wickets while giving away only 43 runs in his 10 overs.

Afghanistan cricket team has qualified for the ICC Cricket World Cup for the first time. The growth of the team in the last few years has been phenomenal. Afghanistan will play their first league match on 18th of February as they take on Bangladesh in Manuka Oval Stadium in Canberra, Australia.

Afghanistan Cricket Team pulled up their first major win against any test playing nation by beating hosts Bangladesh in the fifth match of the Asia Cup 2014 held at Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium, Fatullah, Bangladesh. Playing in Asia Cup for the first time, Afghanistan not only beat the the test-playing hosts convincingly but also nearly managed to sneak a bonus point. Afghanistan achieved the historic win in only their fourth match against a major national cricket team.

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim won the toss and put Afghanistan to bat. After losing a few early wickets, Asghar Stanikzai and Samiullah Shenwari made a historic 164-run stand for the sixth wicket that lifted Afghanistan from 90 for 5 in the 27th over to a competitive 254 for 6 wickets in their 50 overs. Samiullah Shenwari scored 81 off 94 balls while Asghar Stanikzai scored 90 off 152 balls.

Bangladesh kept on losing wickets from the start as Afghan bowlers kept on taking wickets at regular intervals. Skipper Mohammed Nabi took 3 wickets in his 9.4 overs giving only 44 runs. Hamid Hassan and Shapoor Zadran took 2 wickets each while Samiullah Shenwari contributed with 1 wicket. Bangladesh team were bowled out for a paltry 222 runs in 47.5 overs.

Samiullah Shenwari was adjudged the Man of the Match for his all round performance.

For the full scorecard of the match, click here.

Afghanistan pulled up a spirited fight against the current ICC ODI champions and 2007 ICC T20 World Cup winner India in their first match of the ICC T20 World Cup today. Afghanistan captain Nawroz Mangal won the toss and decided to field. India struggled early and the out of form openers Gautam Gambhir and Virender Sehwag were scalped early by Shapoor Zadran. However, Virat Kohli (50 runs off 39 balls), Suresh Raina (38 runs off 33 balls) and a quickfire 18 runs off 9 balls by Indian skipper MS Dhoni helped India reach 159 runs for 5 wickets in 20 overs. Though the ground fielding of the Afghanistan players were upto the mark but the number of missed catches (including several easy ones) definitely reflected the lack of experience at the international stage. Afghanistan in reply started well with Mohammad Shahzad scoring 18 runs off 16 balls while captain Nawroz Mangal scored 22 runs off 18 balls followed by Karim Sadiq (26 runs off 26 balls). However, once the Indian spinners came, the Afghanistan batsmen found it quite difficult and except for a quickfire 31 runs off 17 balls by Mohammad Nabi, all the other batsmen went out early. Afghanistan were all out for 136 runs in 19.3 overs. Yuvraj Singh and L Balaji scalped 3 wickets each for India while R Ashwin took 2. Virat Kohli was awarded the Man of the Match.

As a writer in a popular Indian news website pointed out, India took the T20 match but Afghanistan won hearts. Except for the missed catches, Afghanistan played like an extremely professional and seasonal team in World Cricket. India is a subcontinental giant and are well aware of playing conditions in the subcontinental tracks such as those in Sri Lanka where the matches are held. However, England does not have an exceptional record in the subcontinent. But at the same time, they are also the current T20 champions though the last T20 World Cup was held on completely different conditions. So, the next match might be even more interesting if Afghanistan players give their best against England in their next World Cup T20 match on 21st of September.

However, there are a few points that the Afghanistan team needs to ponder upon before the next match:

1) The observation today was that Afghanistan batsmen are not the best against bouncers. And Afghan bowlers do not use the bouncer that frequently too. England bowlers use bouncers as a regular weapon in their cricketing arsenal. So, Afghanistan batsmen need to rectify their weakness against the short ball or England might use it extensively.

2) England is one of the best fielding sides in the world and hardly ever miss catches. But Afghanistan fielders seemed to have butter fingers while catching today. Catches win matches. So, if they cannot hold on to the catches, then England will have a major advantage on that front too.

3) England also has a couple of good spinners. So, Afghanistan needs to play the spinners well in order to pull up a good batting performance.

One benefit for Afghanistan though is that England’s star batsman and one of the world’s most prolific T20 players Kevin Pietersen is not going to be present in the English team. Afghanistan players need to give their best in order to have any chances of defeating the current T20 World Cup champions in the next match. A win in the next match might also pave way for Afghanistan to move to the super eights round for the first time in it’s history.