KABUL - The Afghanistan Under-19 national cricket team defeated New Zealand by 202 runs during the Quarter-Final match of the ICC Under-19 Cricket World Cup. (Photo: International Cricket Council)
Played in Christchurch in east coast of New Zealand, the Afghan team set a target of 310 runs for New Zealand U-19s after winning the toss and electing to bat first.
Afghanistan lost a total six wickets to secure 309 runs from 50 overs with the opener batsmen Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran putting on display a good performance.
Gurbaz scored 69 runs and Zadran 68 runs while the middle order batsmen also played well to set a good target for their rival team in the key Quarter-Final match.
Bahir Shah remained not out after scoring 67 runs in the middle order while Azmatullah Omarzai scored 66 runs, Nisar Wahdat 20 runs, Ikram Ali Khil 4 runs, and Darwish Rasooli 3 runs.
The New Zealand U-19s could not chase the given target after their top order batsmen collapsed during the inital overs of the game and were all out after scoring only 107 runs from 28.1 overs.
On the bowling side, Mujeeb and Qais Ahmad took four wickets each while Naveen-ul-Haq took one to restrict the New Zealand batsmen.
With today’s win the Afghan Under-19 national cricket team managed to secure spot in the upcoming semi-final matches of the World Cup. (KP)