ABU DHABI: Afghanistan bid an emotional farewell to former captain Asghar Afghan by thumping Namibia by 62 runs on Sunday to keep alive their hopes of progressing to the semi-finals.

Asghar scored 31 as Afghanistan batted first and made 160-5 in the Group II game. Afghanistan’s seamers then took eight wickets as they restricted Namibia to 98-9.

Hamid Hassan, making his first T20 international appearance in five years, and Naveen-ul-Haq both took three wickets.

Naveen was named player of the match but presented his award to Asghar.

“I made my debut under his captaincy, so I want to dedicate it to him,” the 22-year-old said at the presentation ceremony. “He was the best captain Afghanistan has produced. We will miss him a lot.”

Speaking after the first innings, an emotional Asghar discussed his decision to retire mid-tournament in an on-field interview saying he had made the choice after Friday’s loss to regional rivals Pakistan.

“From the last match we were hurt too much and that is why I decided to leave the stage,” he said. “It’s very difficult to explain, but I had to retire. I wanted to give a chance to the youngsters.”

Asghar skippered Afghanistan over all three formats of cricket. He played six Tests, 114 One-day Internationals and this was his 75th Twenty20 international in a career spread over 12 years.

The current captain Mohammad Nabi said after the game that he had not been able to change Asghar’s mind.

“He had already decided. Last night Asghar told me that tomorrow it might be my last game,” said Nabi.

“It’s his decision. He has played for 16 years, captained for six, seven years, and has won a lot of games for Afghanistan. He has won the most games for a captain in the world.”

Nabi won the toss and again bucked the trend at the World Cup by opting to bat first.

“Our plan is normally to bat first but mentally we are ready to chase as well,” he said.

Mohammad Shahzad gave Afghan­istan a fast start with 45 off 33 balls including two sixes. After he holed out at deep square leg off J.J. Smit, opening partner Hazratullah Zazai accelerated, smashing a pair of sixes in his 33.

“In the meetings, we tell both openers to go and play their game. The way they are playing for the last 10 years,” Nabi said.

Leg-spinner Jan Nicol Loftie-Eaton dismissed Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Najibullah Zadran cheaply to briefly slow batting momentum.

Play briefly halted when Asghar came in to bat and Namibia greeted him by lining up and applauding.

Asghar hit a brisk 31 off 23 balls with three fours and a six.

After Ruben Trumpelmann dismissed the 33-year-old with the last ball of the 19th over, there was another pause as Namibian players ran across the field to shake hands as he walked off.

Nabi bashed an unbeaten 32 off 17 balls with one six and five fours, the last off the final ball to take his team to 160.

Trumpelmann took two wickets for 34 runs in his four overs while Loftie-Eaton gave up just 21 runs as he took two wickets.

Afghanistan had made one change to the team that lost to Pakistan, recalling Hamid Hassan for a first appearance in five years in place of injured spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

The change paid off as, for once, Afghanistan’s seamers did the damage.

Naveen removed both openers, Craig Williams and Michael van Lingen to reduce Namibia to 16-2. He later removed Jan Frylinck to finish with 3-26.

As Namibia struggled to recover from their poor start, Hamid dismissed captain Gerhard Erasmus with a yorker, JJ Smit and top scorer David Wiese, who made 26.

“We always depend on spin, but we have good seamers too. They are quality bowlers as Hamid showed today,” said Nabi.

Afghanistan, who have two tough games in hand against New Zealand and India, have four points from three games. They lost a nail-biting game to Pakistan by five wickets when the hard-hitting Asif Ali smashed four sixes in the penultimate over.

Namibia have two points from two games after beating Scotland in the opening game. Their three remaining games are against much tougher opposition in New Zealand, India and Pakistan.

Erasmus said he expected tough matches in the Super 12s.

“We knew it would be a level up from the previous games,” he said. “Afghanistan got away with the bat and a few partnerships stretched the total. It was the quality of their attack and their cricketers... it showed today. We are going to take this as a steppingstone for the future.”

Scoreboard

AFGHANISTAN:

Hazratullah Zazai c van Lingen b Smit33

Mohammad Shahzad c Scholtz b Trumpelmann45

Rahmanullah Gurbaz lbw b Loftie-Eaton4

Asghar Afghanc van Lingen b Trumpelmann31

Najibullah Zadranlbw b Loftie-Eaton7

Mohammad Nabi not out32

Gulbadin Naibnot out1

EXTRAS (LB-1, W-6)7

TOTAL (for five wkts, 20 overs)160

DID NOT BAT: Karim Janat, Rashid Khan, Naveen-ul-Haq, Hamid Hassan.

FALL OF WICKETS: 1-53 (Hazratullah), 2-68 (Rahmanullah), 3-89 (Shahzad), 4-113 (Najibullah), 5-148 (Asghar).

BOWLING: Trumpelmann 4-0-34-2, Smit 3-0-22-1, Wiese 4-0-33-0, Frylinck 3-0-34-0, Loftie-Eaton 4-0-21-2, Scholtz 1-0-8-0, Erasmus 1-0-7-0.

NAMIBIA:

C. Williamsc sub (Usman Ghani) b Naveen1

M. van Lingen c Hamid b Naveen11

J.N. Loftie-Eaton b Gulbadin14

G. Erasmus b Hamid12

Z.Green b Rashid1

D. Wieseb Hamid26

J.J. Smit c Shahzad b Hamid0

J. Frylinck c Nabi b Naveen6

Pikky Ya France c & b Gulbadin3

R. Trumpelmann not out12

B. Scholtznot out6

EXTRAS (LB-2, W-4)6

TOTAL (for nine wkts, 20 Overs)98

FALL OF WKTS: 1-2 (Williams), 2-16 (van Lingen), 3-29 (Loftie-Eaton), 4-36 (Green), 5-56 (Erasmus), 6-56 (JJ Smit), 7-69 (Frylinck), 8-77 (Ya France), 9-80 (Wiese, 16.5).

BOWLING: Naveen 4-0-26-3, Nabi 2-0-17-0, Hamid 4-0-9-3, Gulbadin 4-1-19-2, Karim 2-0-11-0, Rashid 4-0-14-1.

RESULT: Afghanistan won by 62 runs.

UMPIRES: Ahasan Raza (Pakistan) and Chris Gaffaney (New Zealand).

TV UMPIRE: Paul Reiffel (Australia).

MATCH REFEREE: Javagal Srinath (India).

PLAYER-OF-THE-MATCH: Naveen-ul-Haq (Afghanistan).

Published in Dawn, November 1st, 2021