Chennai, (UNI) A strokeful 95 not out by openers Ibrahim Zadran and a fine show by the spinners with Mohammad Nabi claiming four for, helped Afghanistan to sign off their T20 World Cup cam;aign with a commanding 82-run win over minnows Canada in a Group D match at the M A Chidambaram stadium here on Thursday night.
Set a target of 201, thanks largely to an entertaining unbeaten by Zadran (56 balls, 7×4, 5×6) and useful contributions from fellow opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (30) and an attractive 44 by middle order batter took Afghanistan to a commanding 200 for four, a target which proved too tall for Canada to surmount and they eventually finished at 188 for eight.
Semifinalists of the previous edition, Afghanistan having failed to make it to the Super 8, with losses against New Zealand and South Africa (in two super overs), won their last two matches against UAE and Canada to finish their campaign on a winning note.
Chasing an imposing target, Canada batters were never in the hunt losing wickets at regular intervals as the Afghan spinners applied brakes with a nagging line and length, choking the chase.
Canada was never in the hunt and were far behind the asking rate, losing three wickets at the end of power play, lost two more at the halfway stage, with spinners Mohd Nabi and skipper Rashid Khan striking in tandem acccounting for six batters.
None of the Canada batsmen rose to the occasion as they caved in meekly to the Afghan spinners.
Harsh Thaker and Saad Bin Zafar were the only ones to show some resistance scoring 30 and 28 runs respectively as the rest of batsmen succumbed without a fight, unable to cope up with the experience of Afghan spinners.
While Nabi finished with an impressive figures of four for seven, picking a wicket in each of his four overs, Rashid chipped in with two wickets to finish with a spell of 4-0-19-2 as Afghanistan won with consummate ease.
This was their fourth match against Canada in a T20 contest and Afghans now leads 3-1, with both the teams winning the first two matches and Afghanistan emerging victorious in the last meeting and carried it forward tonight.
Afghan finished its campaign with two wins in four matches and Canada ended up at the bottom of the table having lost all the contests.
Zadran’s superb knock, Nabi’s four for helps Afghan to sign off T20 WC campaign with commanding win over Canada
