Afghanistan have lost their first match in the WCL Division One to Ireland in Rotterdam today. Play resumed after rain yesterday forced Afghanistan’s innings to be delayed. The weather was fine today, but Afghanistan’s batting was less so as they fell well short by 39 runs.
As in the match against Canada, they got off to a solid, if slow start. The difference this time is that once the first wicket fell, Noor Ali today, the next batsman Mohammad Shahzad failed to give the innings the impetus it needed. It was disappointing how the wicket came about, though. In the same over as the first wicket, Shahzad needlessly holed out to deep mid-off.
Next over the captain Nawroz Mangal, who was man of the match on Thursday, departed, caught by George Dockrell, the Irish spinner. A nice partnership followed between Shabir Noori and Asgher Stanikzai, before Noori, who had battled so well, lost his patience and was caught on the boundary.
That wicket brought in Karim Sadiq, the aggressive batsman who is batting down the order this tournament. He got off the mark with a six, then a couple of boundaries, but his stay was short lived, falling for 25. Stanikzai was out LBW an over earlier.
Afghanistan still had the destructive Mohammad Nabi and Samiullah Shenwari, a capable lower-order batter. But poor tactics let Afghanistan down: the run-rate was increasing, so was the pressure, wickets were running out, yet they refused to take the batting powerplay. What was more frustrating was that Nabi and Shenwari got out playing big shots. If you are going to take such risks, you should do it in the batting powerplay. Instead, the powerplay was left to the tail-enders, Hamid Hassan and Khaliq Dad. It was also taken at the last possible time, when it became mandatory. It was like they had forgotten all about it.
Hassan and Khaliq swung merrily but, understandably, failed to score at 11 runs per over. Two wickets in two balls hastened the ending with 17 balls short of the 50 overs as Ireland, who have lost the majority of games against Afghanistan, clinched victory by 39 runs. Alex Cusack the pick of the bowlers with 5 for 20.
The glaring difference between the teams wasn’t in the batting or the bowling, though; it was in the catching. Afghanistan dropped four, Ireland caught everything. Ireland are hardly a team of athletes but they are committed and hold on to most chances.
Afghanistan need to get back on track, and they will have an excellent opportunity to do that against the struggling Kenya tomorrow. The top two teams qualify for the final in the WCL so this match is a must win game. This match is to be broadcast live on the ESPNSTAR website.
| Teams | Mat | Won | Lost | Tied | N/R | Pts | Net RR |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Scotland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | +0.933 |
| Ireland | 2 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 4 | +0.854 |
| Netherlands | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | +1.154 |
| Afghanistan | 2 | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 2 | -0.318 |
| Canada | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1.027 |
| Kenya | 2 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | -1.625 |
