Lucknow (Uttar Pradesh): Skipper Hashmat Shahidi led from the front as Afghanistan recorded their fourth win of the ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 by defeating the Netherlands by seven wickets at the Ekana Stadium here on Friday.
First, the Afghan bowlers wrekced havoc and bowled out the opposition for 179 in just 46.3 overs and chased the target inside 32 overs. The chase turned out to be a walk in the park even as Shahidi, who remained unbeaten on 56 off 64 balls, anchored the chase. The Asian side lost opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) early but one-down Rahmat Shah joined forces with Ibrahim Zadran as the duo added 28 runs before the latter was dismissed.
It was the Rahmat (52 off 54 balls)-Shahidi partnership that took the game away from the Netherlands. The duo added 74 runs for the third wicket, even as Afghanistan inched closer to victory. While Rahmat hammered eight boundaries, Shahidi's knock was laced with six hits to the advertising fences.
It was only befitting that Shahidi wrapped up the game on the third ball of the 31st over with a boundary as celebrations erupted in the Afghan camp. The Afghan story has been the story of the World Cup and courtesy the win, they have jumped to the fifth spot with eight points.
They have two games left and if they win both games, they can go to 12 points. Earlier, the Netherlands were in trouble thanks to a middle-order collapse and were bundled out for 179 in 46.3 overs in an ICC World Cup league match at the Bharat Ratna Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium here on Friday. Opting to bat first, the Dutch team was never in control of the proceedings, losing wickets one after another due to some disciplined bowling for the Afghanistan bowlers.
Opener Wessley Barresi (1) was the first to depart when the team score was 3. Max ODowd (42) and Collin Ackermann (29) added 70 runs for the second wicket to stabilize the innings and things looked better for the Netherlands. Number four batter Sybrand Engelbrecht (58) also tried his best to save them the blushes.
ODowd hit nine boundaries in his 40-ball stay in the middle while Ackermann slammed four fours. Top-scorer Engelbrecht took 86 deliveries for his 58 laced with six hits to the fences. After that, it was the procession of the batters as the lower middle order completely collapsed and the Dutch team were eventually all out for well below 200. Skipper Scott Edwards (nought), Bas de Leede (3), Saquib Zulfiqar (3), Logan van Beek (2) and Roelf van der Merwe (11) all failed to put up a semblance of resistance against the Afghan bowlers.
Mohammad Nabi was the pick of the bowlers claiming three wickets for 28 runs while Noor Ahmed bagged a couple. Mujeeb Ur Rahman scalped one. Brief scores: The Netherlands 179 all out in 46.3 overs (Sybrand Engelbrecht 58, Max ODowd 42; Mohammad Nabi 3/28, Noor Ahmed 2/31) lost to Afghanistan 181/3 in 31.3 overs (Hashmat Shahidi 56 not out; Rahmat Shah 52; Saqib Zulfikar 1/25) by seven wickets.
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