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.
