Afghanistan marches onwards and upwards
The win, their fourth in seven games, swelled Afghanistan’s tally to eight points and also lifted them to the fifth spot ahead of Pakistan.
LUCKNOW: Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmat Shah made well-compiled fifties and veteran Mohammad Nabi produced a stifling spell as Afghanistan continued its dream run in the World Cup, registering a smooth seven-wicket victory over Netherlands to keep its semifinals hopes alive on Friday.
In the battle between two giant-killers of this showpiece, Afghanistan rode on its spinners and brilliant fielding to restrict the Dutch to 179 runs and then chased down the target in 31.3 overs.
The win, their fourth in seven games, swelled Afghanistan’s tally to eight points and also lifted them to the fifth spot ahead of Pakistan.
The Afghans, who defeated defending champions England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in this tournament, however, have two tough matches left against Australia and South Africa and their fate relies on the results of them. Netherlands, who surprised the world with wins over South Africa and Bangladesh, are all but out of the tournament with two games left. They have four points.
Rahmat’s sparkling form continued as he hit his third consecutive fifty and with skipper Shahidi shared 74 runs for the third wicket to set the base for Afghanistan’s comfortable win.
Shahidi, who is also in red hot form, made yet another half-century to lead his side from the front.
Along with Azmatullah Omarzai, Shahidi stitched 52 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket stand to ensure a comfortable win for his side. Zulfiqar (1/25), Van der Merwe (1/27) and Logan van Beek (1/30) picked up a wicket each for the Dutch.
Earlier, Sybrand Engelbrecht struck a gritty half-century but failed to push the Netherlands to a competitive total.
Engelbrecht anchored Netherlands’ innings after they suffered a mid-innings collapse. This was after Max O’Dowd and Colin Ackermann shared an attacking 70-run alliance off 64 balls for the second wicket after they elected to bat.
Poor judgement while running between the wickets and some brilliant fielding from Afghans derailed the Dutchmen. Netherlands’ slide continued as wickets fell like ninepins with wicket-keeper Ikram Alikhil involved in four dismissals.
Bas de Leede edged one to Alikhil off off-spinner Nabi and a few overs later the Afghan pounced on another nick off Noor Ahmad to send Zulfiqar back into the dressing room.
Alikhil then effected a stumping off Nabi to dismiss Logan van Beek. The wear and tear of Lucknow pitch favoured the Afghan spinners who got the better of the Netherland batters.
BRIEF SCORES: Netherlands 179 in 46.3 overs (Max O’Dowd 42, Sybrand Engelbrecht 58, Mohammad Nabi 3/28) lost to Afghanistan 181/3 in 31.3 overs (Rahmat Shah 52, Hashmatullah Shahidi 56)
