ICC World Cricket League Division One, 1st Match: Afghanistan beat Canada
Afghanistan completed a comprehensive win against Canada in the ICC World Cricket League Division One.
In an evenly contested match, Afghanistan prevailed by 6 wickets, and continued to prove that they are improving with every game.
Canada won the toss and chose to bat first; the pitch at Voorburg did not look to have any devils in it, and Canada was looking to pile on a big score. The innings started brightly for them, as opener Hiral Patel was the aggressor and went for his strokes right from the go. However, with 23 on the board in the 4th over, Rizwan Cheema was caught by Nawroz on the bowling of Khaliq Dad for just 4 runs from 16 balls.
Zubin Surkari, who is believed to be the most prolific batsman in the side, could not impress much and was dismissed early for just 2 runs from 8 balls; he was caught by Shahzad in the slips off the bowling of Shapoor Zadran.
With Canada at 28 for 2, Captain Ashish Bagai walked in to join Patel, and the two senior men took on the responsibility to build the innings. Although the wicket was not that difficult to bat on, the Afghani bowlers showed good discipline to restrict the Canadians.
The pair put on a solid partnership of 88 runs for the 3rd wicket, before Patel was dismissed after scoring a solid 43 from 73 balls. He smashed 5 boundaries in his spell, and was caught by Noor Ali on the bowling of Samiullah Shenwari.
Geoff Barnett came in at number 5, but found it hard to get the ball away and struggled at first, but settled down to a degree to put on a 34 run stand alongside Bagai, who did the bulk of the scoring. Barnett was dismissed for just 12 runs from 23 balls; he was caught plum in front by Shenwari for his 2nd wicket.
Wickets kept tumbling at one end while Bagai continued to anchor the innings from the other. Sunil Dhaniram was the next man to go after scoring 16 from 12 balls with 3 smashing boundaries; he was clean bowled by Shenwari, who got his 3rd wicket of the match.
Jimmy Hansra then stopped the fall of wickets and steadied the ship with Bagai, but after 20 more runs, Bagai was dismissed by Khaliq after scoring 82 good runs from 122 balls with 5 fours.
Canada finally ended at 257 for the loss of 7 wickets in the allotted 50 overs.
The target, although a decent one, did not pose too much threat for a strong Afghan batting line-up, and any nerves were calmed down with a solid opening stand of 48 runs between the openers Ali and Noori.
Canada got the first breakthrough via a run out, as Shabir Noori went for a second and fell well short; he scored 19 runs from 36 balls with 2 fours.
Mohammad Shahzad came in at number 3 and continued the good work alongside Noor Ali. The pair put on 87 runs for the 2nd wicket and played shots all around the park. Canadian bowlers looked short on ideas and started to spray the ball around, and Afghanistan batsmen took full advantage, especially Shahzad, who was in an aggressive mood.
The partnership was broken with the score at 135, when Shahzad was dismissed for a run a ball 57 runs, with 6 fours and a six. He was bowled by off-spinner Patel.
Noor Ali was also sent back soon after. Ali scored 50 runs from 89 balls with 2 fours; he was also the victim of a suicidal run-out.
Next in was Stanikzai, while Nawroz Mangal was also fresh at the other end. The pair put on another solid partnership to take the team on the brink of victory. They put on 82 runs for the 4th wicket. Stanikzai was dismissed after scoring 28 runs from 40 balls with 2 fours; he was trapped lbw by Chohan.
Nawroz Mangal remained unbeaten at 70 from 58 balls, smashing 6 fours, and guided his team to victory with 8 balls to spare and 6 wickets in hand. Nawroz Mangal was named man of the match for his match-winning 70 runs.
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