In the final group stage game, Afghanistan signed off with a massive win. Ibrahim Zadran’s unbeaten 95 and Mohammad Nabi’s 4 for 7 proved too much for Canada on a tricky surface. Afghanistan won the game by 82 runs. This World Cup exit also ended Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott’s tenure as head coach.
Zadran and Rahmanullah Gurbaz made 47 runs as the opening pair for Afghanistan. It could have been much shorter if Shreyas Movva had taken the catch of Gurbaz on 7. Jaskaran Singh ended Gurbaz and Gulbadin Naid at the end of powerplay.
Not long after, Kaleem Sana dropped Zadran on 54 at long on. It would have been a deserved wicket for Ansh Patel, but that didn’t happen. Sediqullah Atal made 44 and supported Zadran through the middle overs
In the end, Zadran hit two fours off the last two balls to take the Afghanistan innings to a massive total of 200 for 4 wickets. It was their highest score at a T20 World Cup.
Canada’s leading T20I run scorer, Navneet Dhaliwal, didn’t have a great outing as he perished for a five-ball duck. Even Yuvraj Samra could not continue his form from the New Zealand game. He got out for 17 runs.
Harsh Thaker (30) and Saad Bin Zafar (28) tried to revive Canada’s innings, but it was never threatening for Afghanistan.
Mohammad Nabi took four wickets to deflate Canada’s hopes of ever reaching that mammoth total. He was in his element and took 4 wickets for just 7 runs in four overs.
