Afghanistan today beat the Netherlands by seven wickets in Lucknow with 111 balls remaining, registering their third straight win in the tournament. This comes after the Afghani team beat Pakistan and Sri Lanka, keeping their hopes to reach the Semi-Finals alive.
Prior to this match, both sides had faced each other in nine ODIs, with Afghanistan leading 7-2.
The Netherlands won the toss and chose to bat first.
Bowling first, Afghanistan relied on their spinners and brilliant fielding to restrict the Netherlands to 179 all out. The Dutch team lost their first wicket of Wesley Barresi in the first over. However, they recovered and went on to 73 before losing Max O’Dowd, who scored 48 runs, in the 12th over. Colin Ackermann soon followed O’Dowd, after scoring 29 runs. Before they could reach 100, the team had lost five of their wickets, including skipper Scott Edwards’ wicket. No one after Sybrand Engelbrecht could score big and departed under 15 runs.
The first innings saw four Dutch players being run out, while Mohammad Nabi took three wickets. Noor Ahmad took two wickets, while Mujeeb Ur Rahman picked one.
Afghanistan’s response
The Afghan team chased down the target pretty easily in 31.3 overs. Despite losing both their openers, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) and Ibrahim Zadran (20), inside the 11th over for 55, the team stayed in control. Rahmat Shah (52 runs), Hashmatullah Shahidi (56 runs) and Azmatullah Omarzai (31 runs) carried the team on their shoulders till the end.
Aryan Dutt, Roelof van der Merwe and Saqib Zulfiqar each took one wicket each for the Netherlands.
With this, Afghanistan have jumped to the fifth position on the points table, leaving Pakistan behind. As of now, Afghanistan, New Zealand and Australia have eight points on the table with four wins.