World Cup: Clinical Afghans bowl out Dutch for 179 in battle of giant-killers

Lucknow: Sybrand Engelbrecht struck a gritty half-century but failed to push the Netherlands to a competitive total as Afghanistan bowled them out for 179 in a World Cup match here on Friday.

Engelbrecht (58 off 86) anchored Netherlands’ innings after the Dutch suffered a mid-innings collapse. This was after Max O’Dowd (42 off 40) and Colin Ackermann (29) shared an attacking 70-run stand off 64 balls for the second wicket after electing to bat.

Netherlands lost Wesley Barresi, who replaced Vikramjit Singh, in the fifth ball of the innings, with Mujeeb Ur Rahman catching him plumb in front of the wicket.

O’Dowd and Ackermann steadied the Dutch ship before Netherlands suffered a dramatic middle-order collapse.

Three run outs jolted Netherlands’ surge as from 73 for one they slumped to 92 for 5, losing half the side inside 20 overs.

Poor judgement while running between the wickets and some brilliant fielding from the Afghans destabilised the Dutchmen.

A set O’Dowd fell victim to an unnecessary run out, caught inches short of the crease by Azamatullah Omarzai’s direct hit from the deep in search of a double. O’Dowd struck nine boundaries during his knock.

A few overs later, it was Ackermann who was run out at the keeper’s end while going for a non-existent single.

Netherlands’ slide continued as wickets fell like nine pins with wicket-keeper Ikram Alikhil involved in four dismissals.

Bas de Leede first edged one to Alikhil off off-spinner Mohammad Nabi and then few overs later the Afghan glovesman pounced on another smart nick off Noor Ahmad to send Saqib Zulfiqar back into the dressing room.
Alikhil then effected a stumping off Nabi to dismiss Logan van Beek.

The wear and tear of Lucknow pitch favoured the Afghan spinners — Nabi (3/28), Noor Ahmad (2/31) and Mujeeb (1/40).