GROS ISLET, St Lucia, CMC – Nicholas Pooran perished agonizingly in need of a maiden Twenty20 Worldwide hundred as West Indies made a daring assertion forward of the Tremendous Eights, with a dominant 104-run victory over the beforehand unbeaten Afghanistan within the last group stage recreation of the T20 World Cup right here late Monday.
The enterprising left-hander belted a career-best 98 from 53 deliveries, the cornerstone of the Caribbean facet’s 218 for 5 off their 20 overs – their highest-ever complete at a T20 World Cup and the best of the present showpiece.
Man-of-the-Match Pooran lashed a half-dozen fours and eight sixes. He appeared a certain wager for triple figures earlier than he was run out off the fourth supply of the ultimate over, Azmatullah Omarzai’s throw from the deep making a direct hit on the striker’s finish because the batsman hurried for a second.
Opener Johnson Charles additionally sparkled with 43 off 27 deliveries in entrance of his dwelling followers on the Daren Sammy Cricket Stadium, whereas captain Rovman Powell (26) and Shai Hope (25) produced important cameos.
Left-arm pacer Obed McCoy, in his first match of the event, then claimed three for 14 from three overs whereas left-arm spinners Akeal Hosein (2-21) and Gudakesh Motie (2-28) grabbed a brace of wickets every to ship Afghanistan crashing to 114 all out within the seventeenth over.
Ibrahim Zadran (38) and Omarzai (23) had been the one ones to move 20 in a depressing batting effort that noticed Afghanistan by no means actually get better from shedding the event’s main run-scorer, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, to the third ball of the chase with out a run on the board.
The win was West Indies’ fourth on the trot in Group C, protecting them on a profitable streak forward of their opening Tremendous Eight fixture towards England on Wednesday.
“It feels excellent,” Powell stated afterward.
“It goes to indicate all of the arduous work that the boys have put in during the last 12 months is paying off. We have to preserve enjoying good cricket; whereas doing that, we preserve enhancing.”
He added: “I feel the fellows had been excited to return right here. We at all times knew that right here can be one of many higher batting wickets within the competitors.
“After experiencing Guyana and after experiencing Trinidad, the fellows had been excited – particularly the batters – to get some runs below their belt. Credit score must be given; they took their alternatives tonight.”
Charles, already with two ‘geese’ in his final three innings, offered the early flourish after West Indies had been despatched in, placing eight fours in a 27-ball knock that fuelled an 80-run, second wicket stand with Pooran, the house facet storming to a jaw-dropping 92 within the first power-play.
When Charles chipped a tender catch low to cowl on the finish of the eighth over from pacer Naveen-ul-Haq, Pooran took management of the innings, placing on 33 for the third wicket with Hope and an extra 64 for the fourth with Powell whereas gathering his twelfth T20I fifty off 31 balls within the 14th over and surpassing 2 000 T20I runs when he reached 86.
He humbled feared leg-spinner Rashid Khan, brutally exacting 24 from the captain’s fourth over and 18th of the innings, West Indies plundering 70 from the final 5 overs.
Gazing a required run fee of practically 11, the Afghans crumbled. Gurbaz tugged Hosein to mid-on within the opening over, and whereas Ibrahim and Gulbadin Naib (7) posted 45 for the second wicket, the scoring was sluggish, and the required fee rose to almost 13.
McCoy ripped the guts out of the chase when he knocked over Ibrahim and Najibullah Zadran (0) in his first over – the eighth of the innings – and when he introduced one again sharply to bowl Mohammad Nabi for one early within the tenth over, Afghanistan had been tottering on 63 for 5 with no means again.
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