Lucknow, Nov 3: Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and Rahmat Shah made well-compiled fifties and veteran Mohammad Nabi produced a stifling spell as Afghanistan continued their dream run in the World Cup, registering a smooth seven-wicket victory over Netherlands to keep their semifinals hopes alive here on Friday.
In the battle between two giant-killers of this showpiece, Afghanistan rode on their spinners and brilliant fielding to restrict the Dutch to 179 all out and then chased down the target in 31.3 overs.The win, their fourth in seven games, swelled Afghanistan’s tally to eight points and also lifted them to the fifth spot ahead of Pakistan.
The Afghans, who defeated defending champions England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in this tournament, however, have two tough matches left against Australia and South Africa and their fate relies on the results of them.
Netherlands, who surprised the world with wins over South Africa and Bangladesh, are all but out of the tournament with two games left. They have four points.
The chase was a cakewalk for Afghanistan despite losing both their openers — Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) and Ibrahim Zadran (20) — inside the 11th over for 55.
Rahmat’s (52 off 54 balls) sparkling form continued as he hit his third consecutive fifty and with skipper Shahidi (56 not out off 64 balls) shared 74 runs for the third wicket to set the base for Afghanistan’s comfortable win.Rahmat finally departed when the team was on 129, handing a simple return catch to Saqib Zulfiqar while trying to go over his head. He struck nine delightful boundaries during his knock.
Shahidi, who is also in red hot form, made yet another half-century to lead his side from the front.
Along with Azmatullah Omarzai (31 not out), Shahidi stitched 52 runs for the unbroken fifth wicket stand to ensure a comfortable win for his side. Zulfiqar (1/25), Roelof van der Merwe (1/27) and Logan van Beek (1/30) picked up a wicket each for the Dutch.Earlier, Sybrand Engelbrecht struck a gritty half-century but failed to push the Netherlands to a competitive total. Engelbrecht (58 off 86 balls) anchored Netherlands’ innings after they suffered a mid-innings collapse. (PTI)
