DUBAI – Pacers Naveenul Haq and Hamid Hassan took three wickets each to help Afghanistan defeat Namibia by 62 runs in the Twenty20 World Cup in Abu Dhabi on Sunday.
The victory will keep alive Afghanistan’s hopes to progress to the semi-finals.
Haq did the early damage with the new ball to derail Namibia’s chase, while Hassan ran through the middle order as their opponents could only muster 98-9 in reply to Afghanistan’s 160-5.
Seamer Gulbadin Naib also picked up 2-19 in an inspired medium pace bowling performance from the Asian side.
It was the second Super 12 win for the Afghans, who stayed second in Group Two behind Pakistan, who have won all three of their matches.
Earlier, Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi won the toss and elected to bowl first against Namibia.
Afghanistan was looking to give a perfect farewell to Ashgar Afghan who was playing the last match today.
Toss news from Abu Dhabi 📰
Afghanistan have won the toss and will bat first 🏏 #T20WorldCup | #AFGvNAM | https://t.co/x0zfGltn2p pic.twitter.com/2IyWKAreC4
— ICC (@ICC) October 31, 2021
Afghanistan has a superior net run rate which could help the squad make semis cut if they clinch the upcoming games.
As per this parameter, the Afghan squad was the favourite to win the match of the T20 World Cup 2021 as they played amazingly against Scotland and Pakistan in their previous games. They are currently at the 2nd position in the points table of Group 2 of Super 12.
Namibia, on the other hand, never played any T20 World Cup matches before however, they played it’s first three T20 World Cup matches in this tournament’s Group Stage.
Squads:
Afghanistan playing 11 (probables): Hazratullah Zazai, Mohammad Shahzad (wk), Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Najibullah Zadran, Mohammad Nabi (c), Asghar Afghan, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Karim Janat/Fareed Ahmad, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb ur Rahman.
Namibia playing 11 (probables): Craig Williams, Zane Green (wk), Gerhard Erasmus (c), David Wiese, Michael van Lingen, JJ Smit, Jan Frylinck, Pikky Ya France, Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton, Ruben Trumpelmann, Bernard Scholtz.
