Sport
Afghanistan and India play out goalless draw in FIFA World Cup Qualifiers
The Indian men’s football team was held to a goalless draw by Afghanistan in its Group A match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 AFC qualifiers at the Damac Club Stadium in Abha, Saudi Arabia on Friday.
Courtesy the result, India, 117th in the FIFA Rankings, moved up to the second place in Group A with four points from three matches, leapfrogging Kuwait who have three points. World No. 158 Afghanistan are bottom of the four-team group with one point, Olympics.com reported.
The Indian football team has also now failed to score in its last five outings. Manvir Singh’s winner vs Kuwait on November 16, 2023 is the last time the Indian team managed an international goal.
A feisty midfield battle ensued in the opening exchanges. While Afghanistan looked to use their pace and physicality to assert dominance, India were intent on playing a passing game.
Vikram Partap Singh, who had earned his senior national team debut in January, made the starting XI for the first time in his career and consistently troubled the Afghanistan defence. The forward kept drifting in between the centre and the wing, often switching with Manvir Singh, which caused much confusion in the Afghanistan ranks.
As the match wore on, the Indian midfield slowly began to assert control. Lallianzuala Chhangte, prancing down the left, found an unmarked Manvir with a low cross. The latter, who had drifted inside from the right flank, sent his shot wide.
Despite India’s control over the game, Afghanistan kept creating chances of their own, especially on the counter. Mosawer Ahadi was released down the right flank before cutting in and unleashing a left-footed curler that India custodian Gurpreet Singh Sandhu caught with both hands.
Manvir had more than one opportunity to score in the first-half itself, first from a corner by Chhangte and then from a cross whipped in by fullback Nikhil Poojary. However, both went begging as the first-half came to a close.
Vikram Pratap, too, missed a few in the second-half.
Twice, he was played in behind the Afghanistan defence. While on the first occasion, the ball was just a yard too far, the 22-year-old managed to wriggle past his marker in the second opportunity, only to make the angle too narrow for himself to take a crack at goal.
Vikram’s last opportunity came just minutes ahead of the hour mark when he managed to get into the six-yard box, unmarked, and connected a header onto a cross by Akash Mishra. The effort went inches wide.
Vikram’s night, however, soon came to an end. A mistimed tackle earned him a booking, and head coach Igor Stimac took the opportunity to replace him with Brandon Fernandes.
Afghanistan kept resorting to the counter-attacks and had arguably their best scoring opportunity of the game in the 62nd minute when Rahmat Akbari’s low cross found Omid Popalzay in the Indian box but Rahul Bheke intervened just in time to shrug the Afghanistan midfielder off the ball.
Stimac made a host of changes with a quarter of an hour left on the clock, bringing on Liston Colaco, Mahesh Naorem, and Deepak Tangri. Colaco found a lot of joy down the right, frequently sending in crosses but the Afghanistan defence managed to deal with them.
Subhasish Bose, who had earlier replaced Mishra, also managed to get a free header inside the Afghanistan box, as he nodded a Colaco corner inches wide of the target.
As the match wore into injury time, Colaco created one last opportunity, sprinting down the right flank. His low cross missed captain Sunil Chhetri but landed at Mahesh’s feet, who tried to create space for a shot but lost possession.
The Afghan men’s football team will again play India in its next match of the FIFA World Cup 2026 AFC qualifiers on March 26 in Guwahati.
Afghanistan defeated Iraq 5-3 on Friday and moved closer to the 2024 FIFA Futsal World Cup qualification.
Afghanistan’s goals were scored by Akbar Kazemi (1), Farzad Mahmoodi (1), Mehran Ghulami (1), and Jawad Safari (2).
In the other match of playoff in Thailand on Friday, Kyrgyzstan beat Vietnam 3-2.
Afghanistan and Kyrgyzstan will face off for a spot at the Futsal World Cup on Sunday at the Playoff final.
Rishabh Pant smashed an unbeaten 88 as he led Delhi Capitals to a tense IPL win over Gujarat Titans on Wednesday, boosting his chances of playing for India at the T20 World Cup.
Delhi posted 224-4 courtesy of a 113-run stand between Pant and fellow left-hander Axar Patel, who hit 66, after they slipped to 44-3 inside six overs at their home Arun Jaitley Stadium, AFP reported.
The hosts kept Gujarat down to 220-8 to win by four runs after David Miller’s 23-ball 55 and an unbeaten 21 off 11 deliveries by Rashid Khan.
Mukesh Kumar kept his nerve in the final over for Delhi’s fourth win in nine matches as they kept their playoff hopes alive in the T20 tournament.
Pant, 26, struck his third half-century of this season after 14 months away from top level cricket following a frightening car accident when his Mercedes rammed into a barrier, flipped and caught fire in December 2022.
Pant, a wicketkeeper-batsman, suffered multiple injuries and was rushed to hospital before being airlifted to Mumbai for further treatment and surgery.
“Everyday that I’m in the middle, I feel better,” man of the match Pant said after his 43-ball blitz studded with five fours and eight sixes.
“Every hour on the field matters, I love being on the field. I try to give it my 100 percent. I think the first six in the match gives me the confidence in a game.”
Pant has not only fired with the bat in the IPL but his sharp work behind the stumps prompted Delhi’s director of cricket Sourav Ganguly and coach Ricky Ponting to back the India star for making the national team for the World Cup in June, AFP reported.
– ‘Great fight’ –
Up and coming Australian batsman Jake Fraser-McGurk gave Delhi a strong start with his 14-ball 23 but medium-pace bowler Sandeep Warrier took three wickets including two in one over.
Patel, a bowling all-rounder promoted to number three in the batting, brought up his fifty with a boundary off Rashid before another Afghanistan spinner Noor Ahmad had him caught at long-on.
Pant reached his fifty in style with a six off Mohit Sharma and then hammered the medium-pace bowler in a 31-run 20th over when he finished with a six, four and three hits over the fence to raise the roof.
South African Tristan Stubbs watched the blitz from the other end after he smashed Sai Kishore in the 19th over, which went for 22 runs, for his unbeaten seven-ball 26.
In reply, Gujarat lost skipper Shubman Gill for six off Anrich Nortje before impact substitute Sai Sudarshan smashed 65 off 39 balls.
Gujarat lost regular wickets but the left-handed Miller smashed Nortje for three sixes and a four to give Delhi a scare before his departure in the 18th over.
Rashid kept up the fight till the end as Gujarat needed 19 off the final over and five on the last ball.
“I think we played some really good cricket, disappointing to lose in the end, but great character shown by everyone,” said Gill. “Great fight till the end and we never thought we were out of the game at any point.”
Attack Energy FC defeated Sorkh Poshan Khafi 1-0 in the 9th match of Afghanistan Champions League (ACL) in Kabul on Wednesday.
Hasib Ahadi scored the only goal and was named man of the match.
“I congratulate this victory to the Attack Energy team. It was a good game. There were some problems that, unfortunately, we couldn’t score in the first half of the match. Thank god we finally won the game,” said Ahadi.
In the 10th ACL match, played on Wednesday, Istiqlal Kabul FC beat Mawj Sahil FC 2-1.
Shadab Malikzada was named man of the match and awarded the trophy.
Tomorrow’s matches will see Khadim FC take on Maiwand FC at 1:00 PM, while Jawanan Wahedi FC face Adalat Farah FC at 3:30 PM.
The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television every day.
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