Afghanistan cricket, which seems to be continuously strengthening its identity in world cricket, is proving to be a big strength in Asia. After the strong performance of the senior team in tournaments like World Cup, T20 World Cup and Asia Cup, Afghanistan A has now created history in the Emerging Asia Cup. In the tournament played in Oman, Afghanistan A easily defeated Sri Lanka A in the final and won the title for the first time. Sediqullah Atal, who proved to be the star of the tournament, played another useful innings in the final, while 18-year-old spinner Mohammad Ghazanfar proved to be the star of this final match.
In this tournament going on in Muscat for the last few days, India A and Pakistan Shaheen were considered contenders for the title. Both the teams had played last year’s final where Pakistan won the title. This time, however, both the teams were eliminated after losing in the semi-finals and it was Afghanistan A, which defeated India A in a dominant fashion, that finally wrote its name on the trophy. In the final held on Sunday 27 October, Afghanistan A won by 7 wickets.
Bilal-Ghazanfar defeated
Sri Lanka A, which reached the final after defeating defending champion Pakistan Shaheen in the semi-finals, did not have a good start in the title match. In just 26 balls, the team lost 4 wickets while only 15 runs could be scored. Bilal Sami and Ghazanfar made Sri Lanka’s condition worse by taking 2 wickets each. However, after this, Sahan Arachchige formed partnerships with Pawan Ratnayake and Nimesh Vimukthi and took the team to a worthy score of 133 runs in 20 overs. Arachchige played an inning of 64 runs in 47 balls. Whereas Sami took 3 wickets for 22 runs and Ghazanfar took 2 wickets for 14 runs.
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Afghanistan did not face any problems
At the same time, this score also did not prove to be big for Afghanistan, which made the highest score of the tournament 206 runs against India A in the semi-finals. Although he lost his wicket on the first ball itself, Sediqullah and captain Darwish Rasooli together managed the innings. Sediqullah also completed his half-century and remained steadfast till the end. To support them, first Karim Janat and then Mohammad Ishaq played important innings, on the basis of which Afghanistan A achieved the target in 18.1 overs and won the title for the first time.
