Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz celebrates after scoring his century, yesterday. PIC: ACB MEDIA
Doha: Rahmanullah Gurbaz yesterday scored a brilliant ton in the second ODI against the Netherlands as Afghanistan won by 48 runs in Doha. With the win, Afghanistan took an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series. Winning the toss, Afghanistan opted to bat first and hoped to replicate their performance from the first match.
Their charge was led by opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who would lend a brilliant hand to the cause. He lost his opening partner Usman Ghani soon though as he would be dismissed for a duck by Fred Klaassen. Gurbaz would then establish a stand with Rahmat Shah before he was dismissed on 35 by Philippe Boissevain. Hashmatullah Shahidi though would lend a brilliant hand to Gurbaz, scoring a half-century as Afghanistan edged closer to a competitive total on a pitch where scoring was proving to be a tricky proposition.
Gurbaz would finally perish in the 42nd over with Boissevain again getting the scalp. But he would do his job scoring a brilliant ton to set Afghanistan up in the final overs in Doha. Afghanistan would keep losing wickets in the death overs but kept on scorecard ticking eventually reaching a score of 237/6 in their 50 overs.
In reply, the Netherlands would not have the best of starts as opener Musa Ahmed walked back to the pavilion for 6 with Mujeeb Ur Rahman doing the damage. Colin Ackermann too couldn’t last long being dismissed by Fareed Ahmed. Scott Edwards and Bas de Leede would then embark on a rebuilding job with the former reaching his half-century but found the scoring to be tough against the Afghan spinners.
It would eventually prove to be a case of leaving it a little too late for the Dutch as the Afghanistan bowlers tightened the screws. In their efforts to up the scoring both the set batters would lose their wickets. Edwards would perish for a well-made 86 while de Leede was gone for 34.
BRIEF SCORES:
Afghanistan 237 for 6 (Gurbaz 103, Shahidi 54, Boissevain 2-39) beat Netherlands 189 (Edwards 86, Mujeeb 4-32) by 48 runs
