Dubai: Namibia found the formidable Afghanistan too strong to handle and crashed to a 64-run defeat in the Desert T20 tournament at the Dubai International stadium on Thursday.
Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat. Openers Mohammad Shahzad and Nawroz Mangal provided a great start putting on 56 runs in 8.1 overs. Mangal was the first to go, bowled by Bernard Scholtz for 30.
In the 11th over, with the score reading 77, Scholtz also dismissed Shahzad for 31. Though Najibullah Zadran became Scholtz’s third victim after he got bowled for three, skipper Asghar Stanikzai and Samiullah Shenwari put on 55 runs for the fourth wicket and ensured a respectable total of 167 for six in 20 overs.
Chasing the total, Namibia got off to a poor start. Opener Louis van der Westhuizen fell for a duck while his partner Stephan Baard got run out for two.
Craig Williams became the second batsman to fall for a duck when he lofted Naveen Ul Haq to Amir Hamza at long on. Meanwhile, Mohammad Nabi removed Zane Green for one. When Jean Kotze too fell for 16 runs, Namibia were tottering at 27 for five.
Samiullah Shenwari pushed Namibia into greater trouble by clean bowling skipper Sarel Burger for 11. Gerrie Snyman and Jan Frylinck put on 59 runs for the seventh wicket before Frylinck got trapped leg before by Rashid Khan for 28. Soon Snyman too followed for 26 and Namibia were bowled out for 103 in 19.2 overs.
In the second match on Wednesday night, Hong Kong too scored an easy 92 runs win over Netherlands. The hero of the match was Anshuman Rath who sparkled with the bat and ball. After hitting 44 runs in Hong Kong’s impressive total of 183 for 4 in 20 overs, he bagged three wickets for just six runs to bundle out Netherlands for 92 runs in 15.3 overs.
Hong Kong posted a whopping 183 for four, riding on opener Nizakat Khan’s 59 runs and lower order batsman Waqas Khan’s unbeaten 33. For Netherlands, except for Ben Cooper who hit 22 runs, none of the other batsmen got runs.
Brief scores:
Afghanistan bt Namibia by 64 runs Afghanistan 167 for 6 in 20 overs (Mohammad Shahzad 31, Nawroz Mangal 30, Asghar Stanikzai 31, Samiullah Shenwari 35, Bernard Scholtz 3 for 17, Christopher Coombe 2 for 37) Namibia 103 in 19.2 overs (Gerrie Snyman 26, Jan Frylinck 28, Rashid Khan 3 for 4, Amir Hamza 2 for 24)
Hong Kong bt Netherlands by 91 runs. Hong Kong 183 for 4 in 20 overs (Nizakat Khan 59, Anshuman Rath 44, Waqas Khan 33) Netherlands 92 in 15.3 overs (Ben Cooper 22, Anshuman Rath 3 for 6, Nadeem Ahmad 2 for 26, Ehsan Khan 2 for 17)
