Afghanistan won the ACC Twenty20 Cup beating Hongkong by 8 runs in the final here at TU International ground today.
Batting first, Afghanistan managed to score 125 in 19.5 overs. Gulbodin Naib top scored 57 off 50 balls. He smashed 2 fours and 5 sixes. Their in-form batsman Shabir Noori could only score 13 runs. While, Mohammad Nabi scored a brisk 16 balls, 24 runs with 2 sixes. Till 18.4 overs, Afghanistan were 115/6 but soon wicket collapse at the end overs that restricted them to pile up 125 runs.
Meanwhile, Hongkong’s Spinner Munir Dar took a maiden 5 wickets haul. His figure today was 5/23 in his 3.5 overs. Nadeem Ahmed took two wickets and wicket a piece for Aizaz Khan and Irfan Ahmed.
During the chase, Honkgong opener, Irfan Ahmed(4) failed in early overs to put the team in trouble. Waqas Barkat(22 off 17 balls), the other opener together with JJ Atkinson(35 off 46 balls) took the team for 52/1 in 7.5 overs. But once Barkat was dismissed, CK Kruger’s inning of 17 off 12 balls also couldnot helped them in chasing. Wickets fell in regular intervals. Once 15.4 overs, they were 97/5 but soon they were bundled out for 117, 8 runs short of the target.
Man of the match, Hamid Hassan took 3/14 in his 4 overs while, Dawlat Zadran & Mohammad Nabi took 2 wickets each.
