AFG VS CAN: Afghanistan beat Canada by 82 runs, Ibrahim Zardan stars in T20 WC clash

COLOMBO: In the 39th clash of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup, Afghanistan beat Canada by 82 runs, with the team’s top-notch Ibrahim Zadran earning Player of the Match following his unbeaten 56-ball 95.

Earlier, Canada won the toss and chose to field, hoping to keep Afghanistan under control, but things went totally out of hand for them.

Afghanistan innings

Opening with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, Afghanistan started aggressively. Rahmanullah made 30 off 20 balls with 5 boundaries, while Ibrahim completely stole the show, smashing 95 runs with 7 boundaries and 5 sixes.

After Rahmanullah got out, Gulbadin Naib couldn’t do much and was cleaned up by Jaskaran Singh. Sediqullah Atal came in and scored 44 off 32 balls with 2 sixes and 2 boundaries, Azmatullah Omarzai added 13 off 7 balls with a six and Darwish Abdul Rasooli chipped in 4 runs off 4 balls. With their combined effort and 13 extras conceded by Canada, Afghanistan finished at 201.

When Canada began chasing the 201-run massive, the team came under pressure as AGH bowlers played havoc with the ball.

The top-order Yuvraj Samra and Skipper Dipreet Bajwa were crushed after allowing each of them only 17 and 13 runs.

Following the top order, Navneet Dhaliwal came but was crushed for a duck as Asmatullah Omarzai went remarkably while attacking with the ball.

During their chase, the middle order gathered some energy to chase but were short lived, as Mohammad Nabi brought them under pressure. He claimed Harsh Thaker (30 off 24), Nicholas Kirton (10 off 12) and Dillon Heyliger (3 off 8) respectively. He also targeted the first wicket after allowing him to score only 17 off 14 balls.

Nonetheless, Shreyas Movva was also being crushed by Rashid Khan, who allowed him only to chase for two jerks amid the in-built pressure at the crease.

With this, the remaining overs were too few to cover the chase, as Jaskaran Singh and Ansh Patel came to the crease. Both the lower-order batters scored only 7 off 13 and 2 off 5 balls respectively.