A 50-ball 67 from Nicolas Pooran, followed by three-wicket hauls from Sheldon Cottrell, Roston Chase and Hayden Walsh helped West Indies beat Afghanistan by 47 runs on Saturday.
The victory wrapped up an ODI series win for West Indies – their first since August 2014 – with a game to play.
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Shai Hope and Evin Lewis got West Indies off to a watchful start, with the pair putting on 98 before Hope was trapped lbw by Rashid Khan in the 25th over. Lewis’s stay at the crease for 54 came to an end in the very next over, and Chase followed in the 35th over to leave West Indies on 137/3.
Shai Hope in ODIs in 2019:
Runs: 1014
Average: 50.70
Hundreds: 2
Fifties: 7
High score: 170Only four other West Indians have made 1000 ODI runs in a calendar year. Can you name them?#AFGvWI pic.twitter.com/aLGiLmL4mj
— ICC (@ICC) 9 November 2019
It was Pooran who injected some impetus into proceedings, with his half-century featuring seven fours and three sixes. With others around him struggling to find the boundary as the innings progressed, it was largely thanks to Pooran that West Indies managed to find some respectability with a total of 247/9.
All the Afghan bowlers celebrated a wicket, with Naveen-ul-Haq picking up three despite conceding over a run a ball.
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Cottrell made an early breakthrough with the dismissal of Javed Ahmadi in the opening over, and while Hazratullah Zazai (23), Rahmat Shah (33) and Ikram Ali Khil (19) made starts, regular wickets kept Afghanistan at bay. The miserly Chase accounted for three of the top five, and ended the innings having conceded just 30 runs from his allocation of 10 overs.
Two wickets in two balls! Is that the game for West Indies?
Afghanistan had rallied through Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi, who added 68 for the sixth wicket. But with both gone the hosts need 67 runs just three wickets in hand.#AFGvWI ?https://t.co/PgJiJ9RlUD pic.twitter.com/4ybXFlaOOa
— ICC (@ICC) 9 November 2019
The most productive partnership for Afghanistan came with the 68 put on by Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi. Najibullah top-scored for his side with a 66-ball 56, but his dismissal from the final ball of the 39th over was followed by Nabi’s from the next ball of the innings, with Walsh collecting his first dismissal.
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The wrist-spinner added two more to his collection, with Rashid out for two and the final wicket of the innings, Sharafuddin Ashraf sent back for 13 to give West Indies the match and series. While West Indies will rejoice having broken an unwanted streak of ODI series losses, Afghanistan’s match-losing streak in ODIs has been extended to 11.
The final match of the series will take place on Monday, 11 November.
