WI 119-6(17) CRR:7

REQ:21

West Indies need 63 runs in 18 balls

Matthew Forde 25(20)

Gudakesh Motie 15(11)

17.2

6

Noor Ahmad to Motie, SIX, back-to-back maximums! Noor Ahmad gives this one a lot of air and it's in the arc for Motie. He clears his front leg and smokes it over long-on. Away she goes into the stands...

17.1

6

Noor Ahmad to Motie, SIX, a gift and duly accepted! A friendly full-toss drifting into Motie's arc from over the wicket. He lines it up and clubs it over cow corner for a maximum

17.4

W

Noor Ahmad to Forde, out Caught by Darwish Rasooli!! Forde holes out! Was a half-tracker around leg-stump to be honest but it was quick through the air. Forde tried to pull it across but miscued it towards deep mid-wicket. Rasooli in the deep moved to his left and took his third catch of the night, 

Forde c Darwish Rasooli b Noor Ahmad 25(21) [4s-2 6s-1]

17.6

W

Noor Ahmad to Motie, out Bowled!! TImber! The googly on a fuller length around off, pitches and turns in sharply, Motie tries to heave it across but gets beaten and the ball crashes into the off-stump. An entertaining cameo from Motie comes to an end. 

Motie b Noor Ahmad 28(15) [4s-2 6s-2]

West Indies need 47 runs in 10 balls

19.3

W

Ziaur Rahman Sharifi to Khary Pierre, out Lbw!! Ziaur Rahman Sharifi gets a 3-fer! He keeps it full and straight, Khary Pierre clears his front leg

 Khary Pierre lbw b Ziaur Rahman Sharifi 3(6)

Afghanistan won by 38 runs

AFG 181/3(20)

WI 143/9(20)

Ziaur Rahman Sharifi 4-0-36-3

Noor Ahmad 3-0-34-2

Mujeeb Ur Rahman 4-0-29-2

Rashid Khan 4-0-19-2

Darwish Rasooli | Player of the Match: 

The plan was simple, that was the conversation with Ibrahim, to take it deep and play our shots later. I tried to play my natural game, that was the only thing in my mind, I backed myself and was able to play the big shots. It's a good start for us and I will try to keep my form going.

Brandon King: 

Obviously it’s disappointing to lose the game. I think we showed glimpses of some really good cricket, but in the end it just wasn’t good enough. (On their susceptibility against spin) When you look at this match, and with the World Cup coming up, especially playing in subcontinent conditions, we came up against some quality spin bowlers today. We’ve got a day off tomorrow, so that’s definitely something we’ll sit down and talk about ahead of the rest of the series. Afghanistan are a side with a number of very good spinners, so it’s an area we know we need to improve. We’ll review the game and look to be better in the next one. As for being back in the captain’s seat, I really enjoyed it, to be honest. I thought the bowlers didn’t do too badly overall. There were patches where we did some good things, but we just weren’t consistent enough to restrict them to a lower total.

Rashid Khan: 

(On choosing to bat first) I feel like with the bowling unit we have, runs on the board give us the best opportunity. When teams see a total on the board, the batters tend to come after you from the beginning, and that was something we had in mind. Put good runs up, then let our spinners do what they do best by hitting the right areas consistently. We didn’t really think too much about batting first or second. I feel as long as we bring our best skills into the game, that’s what should decide the outcome. That was the mindset for everyone, just go out there, execute your skills, and see who wins. I feel very proud putting on this jersey and playing for Afghanistan. It’s a huge moment, and coming back to national duty, especially with a World Cup around the corner, makes it even more special. As a team, we’re fit, we’re looking forward to the challenge, and hopefully we’ll have a good World Cup. As for changes in the second game, that’s something the team management will look at. We’ll assess conditions, review this match, and make the best decision for the team going forward. We will try to go with our best combination keeping the conditions in mind in India. These three games are a good opportunity to test ourselves.