ACC Emerging Teams Cup: Afghanistan beat India U-23

The Afghanistan cricket team

Afghanistan have beaten India U-23 by 28 runs in a Group A encounter in the ACC Emerging Teams Cup being played at the Kallang grounds in Singapore.

Batting first, the Afghanistan team came up with a disappointing show and were able to muster only 184 runs on the board.  The openers Karim Sadiq and Mohammad Shahzad started well enough and had a stable, albeit slow 53 run opening partnership. But once Karim Sadiq was dissmissed for 25 in the twentieth over, the Afghan team kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Credit must be given to the Indian bowlers who bowled in tight areas. Spinners AR Patel and Baba Aparajith picked up two wickets apiece for the Indians.

The Indians surprisingly could could not chase the small target despite making some good scores in the previous two games against Pakistan and Nepal. The Indian opener KL Rahul was the lone batsmen to score in the game, ending up with 51 of 80 balls. The Indian middle order were not able to cope with the spinners from Afghanistan, especially Mohammad Nabi who picked up three wickets for 32 runs off his 10 overs. India’s captain Suryakumar Yadav also failed with the bat scoring only 15 runs, a far cry from his man of the match performance against Nepal in the previous game.

Despite the loss India have qualified for the semi-finals with a better run rate, and will be playing against U.A.E on 23rd August. The other semi final will see Pakistan take on Sri Lanka

Brief scorecard: Afghanistan- 184/7 in 50 overs ( Karim Sadiq 25 (60), Mohammad Shahzad 38 (87) Samiullah Shenwari 43* (44); AR Patel 2-33, B Aparajith 2-16) beat India: 156/9 in 50 overs (KL Rahul 51 (60), AR Bawne 39 (67);  Mohammad Nabi 3-32,  Rahmat Shah 2-40).