{"id":681,"date":"2015-07-15T01:01:08","date_gmt":"2015-07-15T01:01:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=681"},"modified":"2015-07-17T01:15:33","modified_gmt":"2015-07-17T01:15:33","slug":"afghanistan-overpower-scotland-world-twenty20","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?p=681","title":{"rendered":"Afghanistan overpower Scotland: World Twenty20"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"afgan<\/a>Mohammad Shahzad led the way with a blistering 75 from 36 balls as big-hitting Afghanistan beat Scotland by 37 runs in the World Twenty20 Qualifier.<\/p>\n

Shahzad hit seven of the Afghans’ 17 sixes as they posted 210-5 in Edinburgh, their record Twenty20 score.<\/p>\n

Preston Mommsen (44) and Matthew Cross (37) batted gamely for Scotland.<\/p>\n

But hopes were dashed when skipper Mommsen holed out in the 17th over and the tail folded with little resistance for 173 all out in the final over.<\/p>\n

Afghanistan top Pool B with three wins, while Scotland are fourth in the seven-team section with one victory from their three outings.<\/p>\n

“The plan was to bowl the majority of the overs with spin and unfortunately we couldn’t keep the boundary count down,” said Mommsen.<\/p>\n

“The important thing is to peak at the right time. We were good against the UAE but not the last two days.”<\/p>\n

Scotland made a great start, taking the wicket of Nawroz Mangal in the first over but Shahzad soon started hammering the ball all around the ground.<\/p>\n

With assistance from Asghar Stanikzai (34), the experienced wicketkeeper departed in the 12th over with Afghanistan on 112.<\/p>\n

Najibullah Zadran (37) and Mohammad Nabi (33) then ensured there was to be no let-up in the rapid scoring.<\/p>\n

Scotland lost George Munsey for six in the second over of their reply, with Kyle Coetzer (15) and Calum MacLeod (19) soon departing.<\/p>\n

Cross played some sweet shots before spooning a full toss from spinner Nabi up in the air for the bowler to gather.<\/p>\n

Mommsen’s swashbuckling, along with a 24 from Richie Berrington, gave the Scots a glimmer of hope with 58 required from 24 balls, only to be caught in the deep from the bowling of paceman Hamid Hassan.<\/p>\n

Nabi and Hassan both finished with three wickets each.<\/p>\n

\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n<\/colgroup>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n
\n

ICC World Twenty20 Qualifier: Group B<\/h2>\n<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n

<\/th>\nPlayed<\/th>\nWon<\/th>\nLost<\/th>\nTied\/NR<\/th>\nNRR<\/th>\nPts<\/th>\n<\/tr>\n<\/thead>\n
Afghanistan<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n+1.635<\/td>\n6<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Kenya<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n+0.531<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Netherlands<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n+0.468<\/td>\n4<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Scotland<\/strong><\/td>\n3<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n+0.340<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Oman<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n1<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n+0.255<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
Canada<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n2<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n-1.025<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n
UAE<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n3<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n-2.523<\/td>\n0<\/td>\n<\/tr>\n<\/tbody>\n<\/table>\n<\/div>\n

Top team in each group qualify automatically for World Twenty20 2016 – and semi-finals<\/em><\/p>\n

Second, third and fourth-place teams qualify for quarter-finals, with a further four World T20 places available<\/em><\/p>\n

Source: BBC\/ Getty Images<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Mohammad Shahzad led the way with a blistering 75 from 36 balls as big-hitting Afghanistan…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":682,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[4],"tags":[5,9,10,3,33,2],"featured_image_urls":{"full":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot-150x150.jpg",150,150,true],"medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot-300x169.jpg",300,169,true],"medium_large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"large":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"1536x1536":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"2048x2048":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"enternews-featured":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"enternews-medium":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",624,351,false],"enternews-thumbnail":["http:\/\/southasiantimes.com.au\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/07\/afgan-won-scot.jpg",480,270,false]},"author_info":{"display_name":"admin","author_link":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/?author=1"},"category_info":"Stories<\/a>","tag_info":"Stories","_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681"}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=681"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":683,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681\/revisions\/683"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/682"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=681"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=681"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.southasiantimes.com.au\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=681"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}