Chris Gayle and Carlos Brathwaite celebrate the wicket of Afghanistan’s Rahmat Shah in Leeds on Thursday (Reuters Photo)West Indies beat Afghanistan by 23 runs at Headingley in Leeds on Thursday. West Indies finish the 2019 World Cup with 5 points in total. They are tied on points with South Africa, another team which had a disappointing campaign. Afghanistan finish with 0 points, the only team to have not won any match in this World Cup.
A fantastic catch on the last ball to seal a 23-run win for West Indies!
Afghanistan make a fight of it, but fall short as they end #CWC19 without a win.
Highlights on the app ⬇️
APPLE 👉 https://t.co/VpYh7SIMyP
ANDROID 👉 https://t.co/cVREQ16w2N pic.twitter.com/f5fwdHklIl— ICC (@ICC) July 4, 2019
Toss: Jason Holder won the toss and decided that West Indies would bat first.
First Innings: Shai Hope made the most of an early reprieve to score 77 and Evin Lewis and Nicholas Pooran also struck half-centuries to power West Indies to 311-6. Chris Gayle managed only seven in his final World Cup appearance and Hope could also have gone early but Rashid Khan dropped a sitter when the batsman was on five. Captain Jason Holder clobbered four sixes in his 45 off 34 balls and Dawlat Zadran claimed 2-73 for Afghanistan, who were sloppy on the field.
( – : pic.twitter.com/GjUnlQre0p
— ICC (@ICC) July 4, 2019
Second Innings: The star of the chase was young Ikram Ali Khil, whose 86 was the highest World Cup score by anybody aged 18 or less. Coming on after the early wicket of skipper Gulbadin Naib with the score at 5/1, he had taken the score to 189/2 when he went out in the 36th over. Rahmat Shah (62), Najibullah Zadran (31) and Asghar Afghan (40) were also looking good as the Afghan side looked to be playing with more freedom than before. Kemar Roach (3/37) and Carlos Brathwaite (4/63) took most of the Afghanistan wickets between them.
Gamechanger: A 105-run partnership off just 69 balls was added to the West Indies total towards the end of the innings by Nicholas Pooran and Jason Holder. It was this partnership that took the Windies total to beyond 300 and meant that the Afghans would fall short in their chase.
Brief Scores: West Indies 311/6 (50 overs) | Afghanistan 288 all out (50 overs)
