Afghanistan Beat West Indies, Keep World Cup Qualification Hopes Alive

Afghanistan kept their hopes alive for a place in the 2019 ICC Cricket World Cup as they defeated West Indies by three wickets in a thrilling contest. Mohammad Nabi became the first Afghanistan bowler to reach the 100-wicket milestone in this match. The Afghanistan bowling attack was in prime form as they restricted West Indies to a modest 197 for eight in 50 overs on a good batting surface. In reply, Afghanistan reached the target in 47.4 overs. Captain Jason Holder was the pick of his side's bowlers as he finished with figures of three for 39 and thus became the fifth West Indies all-rounder and 64th overall to complete the double of 1,000 runs and 100 wickets in ODIs.

Thursday's Super Six results mean Scotland have leapfrogged the Windies into the top position with five points with matches against Ireland and the Windies remaining, while West Indies stayed on four points with their upcoming matches against Zimbabwe and Scotland.

Afghanistan are on two points with their next opponents being the UAE and Ireland, whereas the UAE are now out of the World Cup race as the maximum points they can earn is four, which will not be sufficient.

Meanwhile in the Play-off Ranking Matches, Nepal grabbed the final ODI spot until 2022 when they defeated Papua New Guinea (PNG) by six wickets to set up a seventh-eighth position play-off against the Netherlands, who defended a small total of 174 to beat Hong Kong by 44 runs.

The feature of Afghanistan's win over the Windies, which gave them a 2-1 lead in four head-to-head matches, was their spin attack that included wrist-spinner Rashid Khan, off-spinners Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Rahman, and left-arm spinner Sharafuddin Ashraf.

The bowlers bowled 39 overs between them in which they conceded 138 runs and took seven wickets.

Mujeeb was the most successful bowler with three for 33, while Nabi bagged two for 43, including the wicket of Marlon Samuels for his 100th ODI scalp.

Shai Hope was the top scorer with 43, while his 50-run fifth wicket partnership with Jason Holder (28) was the highest of the Windies' innings.