Sport
Scotland stuns Zimbabwe, secures clash with Dutch for World Cup spot
Michael Leask helped Scotland to a stunning 31-run victory over Zimbabwe on Tuesday to set up a winner-takes-all clash with the Netherlands for a place at the World Cup.
Sri Lanka became the first of the top two teams in the Super Six table to have qualified for the October-November World Cup in India when they beat Zimbabwe on Sunday.
The hosts could have clinched the second spot with victory over Scotland in Bulawayo, but it was not to be after Scottish quick Chris Sole (3-33) ripped through their top order, eventually bowled out for 203 chasing down 234.
“Our boys have been fantastic. Credit to the way the lads played today,” said Scotland captain Richie Berrington.
“The way we came out and showed faith in the second innings and get those early wickets was fantastic.”
Berrington added: “It’s a quick turnaround to the game against the Netherlands. We’ll take a lot of confidence but it’s going to be a tough game.”
“It’s a very difficult pill to swallow,” Berrington’s Zimbabwe counterpart Craig Ervine acknowledged.
“I thought we did well to restrict them to 230. Unfortunately that first initial spell from Sole really put us on the back foot and just made it hard for us to recover from that position.”
Leask top scored with a 34-ball 48 as Scotland racked up 234 runs for eight wickets off their allotted 50 overs.
Coming in at number eight, he combined with Mark Watt (21 not out) for an invaluable eighth-wicket partnership of 46 after the Scots had been left reeling at 170-7.
Three other batsmen – Matthew Cross (38), Brandon McMullen (34) and George Munsey (31) – all got into the 30s, but failed to build on their time at the crease.
Sean Williams grabbed 3-41 off his 10 overs, but failed to shine with the bat as Zimbabwe were quickly reduced to 37/4 in the run chase, under intense pressure from Sole.
Wessly Madhevere hit 40 and the dangerous Sikandar Raza 34 as Zimbabwe fought back.
Ryan Burl gave the host nation most hope, however, hitting 83 off 84 balls.
But Burl crucially fell to the offbreak of Leask, who also had a smart catch off his own bowling to dismiss Richard Ngarava.
The Scotsman ended with 2-33 off six overs and his team left the field knowing that a victory over the Dutch on Thursday would see them headed for India in the Autumn.
For Zimbabwe it was a case of deja vu after a similar failure in 2018 qualifiers when they also needed to win only one of their last two matches to qualify for the World Cup. They lost in both games in both 2018 and 2023.
“It’s always nice to put those demons from 2018 behind us and had we gotten over the line today, nobody would have been asking about that but unfortunately, we didn’t,” said Ervine.
Ariana Television Network will broadcast the matches daily live on TV and Website.
Pre-match shows will start at 11am (Kabul time), while the day’s match will start at 11.30am (Kabul time).
Matches are streamed live on Ariana Television websites simultaneously:
www.arianatelevision.com/live and www.arianatelevision.com/icc-live
CLICK HERE for the broadcast schedule on Ariana Television
Sport
Attack Energy and Mawj Sahil secure wins in Monday’s ACL matches
Attack Energy defeated Abu Muslim 4-0 in the 19th match of Afghanistan Champions League (ACL) in Kabul on Monday. In the 20th match of the tournament on the same day, Mawj Sahil downed Aino Mina 3-0.
Attack Energy’s three goals were scored by Khalil Ahmad (2) and Yar Mohammad Zakarkhel (1).
The fourth goal came in the form of Abu Muslim’s own goal headed by Abdullah Shah.
In the next match of day, Esmatullah Hadafmand, Mohammad Nazir Azizi and Yasar Salam scored goals as Mawj Sahil defeated Aino Mina 3-0.
Tuesday’s matches will see Khurasan Faryab take on Maiwand at 1pm while Sarsabz Yashlar meet Adalat Farah at 3:30pm.
The matches are broadcast live on Ariana Television.
Sport
Kohli slams strike-rate talk and pundits ‘from the box’
India’s Virat Kohli on Sunday hit back at critics taking aim at his hitting prowess in T20 cricket after he slammed a match-winning unbeaten 70 off 44 balls in the Indian Premier League.
The in-form Kohli set up Royal Challengers Bengaluru’s chase of 201 before his younger partner Will Jacks blew away Gujarat Titans with his 41-ball 100 in Ahmedabad.
Kohli, who has now passed 500 runs in this edition, and England batsman Jacks put on an unbeaten stand of 166 to see Bengaluru home by nine wickets with four overs to spare.
But despite Kohli’s flowing form ahead of the T20 World Cup in June, pundits have raised concerns over his strike-rate as compared to a new breed of T20 batters, who deal in sixes.
“All the people who talk about strike rates and me not playing spin well are the ones talking about this stuff,” Kohli said in response to looking at his season stats.
“For me, it’s about winning the games for the team and there’s a reason why you’ve done it for 15 years. You’ve done this day in and day out, you’ve won games for your teams, I’m not quite sure that if you haven’t been in that situation yourself, to sit and talk about the game from the box.”
Called “King Kohli” for his prolific run-scoring, the star batter has a strike rate of 147.49 in 10 IPL innings. In contrast, Australia’s up and coming batter Jake Fraser-McGurk has made 247 runs at a strike-rate of 237.50 for Delhi Capitals.
Kohli’s 51 in the previous match came in 43 balls, a contrast to teammate Rajat Patidar’s 20-ball 50 and former India quick RP Singh said the veteran batter was “slow”.
“For me, people can talk about their assumptions day in and day out, but those who have done it day in and day out, they know what’s happening and it’s a kind of muscle memory for me now,” said the 35-year-old Kohli.
Kohli struck the first century — his eighth in the IPL — of this edition earlier this month in 67 balls but the knock ended in a losing cause after Rajasthan Royals Jos Buttler hit 100 in 58 balls.
“I don’t want to be over-aggressive, want to keep the bowler guessing. They want me to go hard and get me out,” Kohli said after the knock on April 6.
“It’s just experience and maturity. I play the conditions and have the game ready.”
Bengaluru, who remain bottom of the 10-team table with just three wins in 10 matches, and Kohli still await their first IPL title. – AFP
Sport
Underdogs Afghanistan qualify for Futsal World Cup
Competing in their first AFC Futsal Asian Cup, Afghanistan have concluded a fairy tale tournament by edging the Kyrgyz Republic to reach the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Four second-half goals guided Afghanistan to a 5-3 win and the final 24-strong field for Uzbekistan 2024 is now set.
Unknown at continental level at the start of the month, Afghanistan have scripted one of the great futsal fairy tales by reaching the global showpiece for the very first time.
After raising eyebrows by pushing powerhouse Iran in their opening match and then progressing from the group, the Afghans were involved in a triple Central Asian tangle that ultimately saw them reach the FIFA Futsal World Cup.
Defeat at the hands of Tajikistan in the first of the quarter-finals looked to have marked the end for the daring debutantes only for World Cup hosts Uzbekistan to see off Vietnam in the last of the final eight match-ups to necessitate a play-off to determine the final slot at the sport’s showpiece event.
A 5-3 win against Iraq in the first round of the play-offs set up this winner-takes-all affair with a Kyrgyz Republic outfit also eyeing a maiden World Cup berth.
Settling the better of the two teams, it was a ninth-minute Omid Qanbari effort that sent Afghanistan to the break with a narrow lead; one that they would double nine minutes after the restart as an own goal from Mukhamed Askarbekov made it 2-0.
A frantic ten-minute period then produced six goals but with the Kyrgyz Republic always chasing the match, the Afghans never looked too troubled, with two late, long-range, goals from captain Mahdi Norowzi and Mehran Gholami capping off the impressive 5-3 win.
The FIFA Futsal World Cup is an international futsal competition contested by the senior men’s national teams of the member associations of FIFA, the sport’s global governing body.
Since the first edition that took place in 1989 in the Netherlands, the tournament has been held every four years since 1992.
The current champions are Portugal, who won their first world title after beating the 2016 defending champions Argentina in the final of the 2021 tournament in Lithuania.
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