Prior to the 2018 ICC Cricket World Cup Qualifier, two-time- world cup champions Windies (famously known as West Indies) suffered a huge blow in their confidence after losing the warm-up game against Afghanistan. Afghan pacer Dawlat Zadran claimed a brilliant hat-trick which led to destroy the Caribbean batting line-up.
In the rain-marred warm-up encounter, Windies decided to field first after winning the toss. Before the rain came on, Afghanistan batting suffered a huge collapse as they were once 71/8. While the Windies left-arm pacer Sheldon Cottrell provided a perfect beginning for his team by dismissing Mohammad Shahzad in the very first over for a duck, other bowlers supported him very well.
Also read: Jason Holder Assures No Complacency For ICC World Cup Qualifying
After the rain-interruption, the match reduced to 35 overs. Post rain-interruption, Samiullah Shenwari and Gulbadin Naib pushed up the team’s innings with a brilliant partnership. The duo put 91-runs partnership for the 9th wicket before Naib was dismissed in the last over for 48 runs off 38 balls.
Samiullah was not out at the end of 42 runs off 55 balls while Afghanistan post 163/9 at the end of 35 overs. However, the target reduced to 140 runs for Windies in 35 overs due to the D/L method.
Among the Windies bowlers, Cottrell (3/43) picked up three wickets while the skipper Jason Holder (2/27) and Kesrick Williams (2/34) claimed two wickets each. Also, Kemar Roach (1/16) and Carlos Brathwaite (1/27) earned a wicket each.
Windies lost their first two wickets very quickly before a good and steady partnership between Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels. Opener Chris Gayle lost his wicket after scoring just 9 runs while Shai Hope departed for just 1 runs.
Lewis and Samuels put an important 44-runs partnership for the third wicket. But once that partnership was broken, the Caribbean team suffered a major batting collapse. While once their scoreboard was looking quite well with 80/2, they were bundled out for just 110 runs in a sudden moment.
In between that massive Caribbean batting collapse, Afghanistan right-arm pacer Dawlat Zadran claimed a hat-trick by dismissing Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell and Carlos Brathwaite in the three consecutive deliveries. Apart from that, Dawlat also dismissed Shai Hope as he finished with the bowling figure of 7-1-26-4.
Spinners Rashid Khan (2/7) and Sharafuddin Ashraf (2/21) claimed two wickets each while another experience spinner Mohammad Nabi (1/25) and tall left-arm pacer Shapoor Zadran (1/27) took a piece of wicket each.
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Among the Windies batsmen, only Lewis (36) and Samuels (34) were able to post the double-digit score while the extras were 11. Windies lost the match by 29 runs in D/L method.
Leg-spinner Rashid Khan was leading the side as their skipper Asghar Stanikzai is going to miss for the initial stage of the World Cup Qualifiers due to an appendix surgery.
Other warm-up games
Zimbabwe vs Ireland: Hosts Zimbabwe failed to get a fresh start as their match against Ireland was washed out due to the rain. The match even failed to provide a toss.
Netherlands vs Hong Kong: Netherlands clinched a superb 8 wickets victory. Netherlands decided to bowl first after winning the toss. Hong Kong was bowled out for just 157 runs (41 overs) while Netherlands had a 153 runs target in 46 overs due to a D/L method for the interruption of rain. Netherlands reached the target in 35.5 overs after losing only two wickets.
Scotland vs Papua New Guinea: Scotland beat Papua New Guinea (PNG) by 7 wickets. Scotland decided to field first after winning the toss and bowled out their opponents for just 196 runs in 46.2 overs. Scotland secured their victory by reaching the target in 36.4 overs after losing only 3 wickets.
Nepal vs United Arab Emirates: In the rain-interrupted 29-overs per innings clash between the two Asian teams, Nepal secured a 5-wicket victory against United Arab Emirates (UAE). Deciding to bat first, UAE only posted a total of 171 runs before getting all out in 28.5 overs. In reply, Nepal chased down that target in 28.2 overs after losing 5 wickets.
Now, let’s see some twitter reactions on the clash between Afghanistan and Windies
Afghanistan beat Windies by 29 runs (D/L) in Practice game ahead of World Cup Qualifiers. Dawlat Zadran 4/26 (Hat Trick)
Afghanistan 163-9 (35) Windies 110
Widneis played with their best possible playing XI but apart from Lewis 36 and Samuels 34 no one reached double figures pic.twitter.com/wCR0oXUgQ6
— Abhijeet ♞ (@TheYorkerBall) February 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/pawan7ach/status/968533232743600129
Dawlat Zadran takes hat-trick as Afghanistan beat Windies in warm-up match https://t.co/7Dpx4u73qc #WCQ2018 #ICC #WIvAfg #AFGvWI #cricket
— Ubaid Awan (@UbaidAwan) February 27, 2018
Dawlat Zadran took a hat-trick as Afghanistan came from behind to beat two-time former world champions Windies by 29 runs https://t.co/cRBquXomGM
— Cricket World (@CricketWorldHQ) February 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/sunil_shenoy/status/968529232451190784
https://twitter.com/SumitPrakash21/status/968521815059398657
https://twitter.com/sunil_shenoy/status/968519724790308864
In this form we might not see the two time World champions in 2019. Windies loses the warm-up game against Afghanistan #WCQ2018
— Gdot ⭕️ (@Faux_Monk) February 27, 2018
West Indies all out for 110 chasing 169 against Afghanistan..
This is not the Windies we wanna see
— 1 and Only (@OggaraNe) February 27, 2018
Hopeless and horrendous ..windies lost to afghans !!! Oh yuck cant beLieve ..nightmare !! Dont deserve to be in worldcup 🙁
— raghunath.k.v (@raghukv400) February 27, 2018
https://twitter.com/sshriran/status/968508778013478912
