WI v Afg World T20 Review: Afghanistan stun Windies in a close encounter

Afghanistan created history with an impressive 6-run win over the mighty West Indies. While many would attribute Afghanistan’s win to the absence of Chris Gayle and the injury to Andre Fletcher, it certainly was a deserved win for the associate nation. At the end of the day, it was a case of a fighting and a self-believing side that picked up a valuable win against a side that has pretty much dominated the scene at the outset of the World T20. The win marks the first win over a full member nation for the Afghans in a multi-national tournament.

Darren Sammy’s luck with the toss continued as he called right once more. With the history of the Nagpur wicket suggesting a bit of turn, Sammy decided to put Asghar Stanikzai and his men into bat first. The Afghans, however, seemed to know their way about having played most of their qualification matches at the VCA stadium in Nagpur.

As he had done for the most part this tournament, Sammy handed the ball to the wily Samuel Badree. Badree’s impact was almost instant as he removed opener Usman Gilani in his very first over. With the West Indies skipper Sammy persisting with his trusted leg-spinner, Badree failed to disappoint. However, this time, he had picked up the crucial wicket of Mohammad Shehzad, the most dangerous of the Afghanistan batsmen. Shehzad had slashed and crashed his way to 24 off just 22 balls with a couple of boundaries and a six.

Badree’s final act saw him remove Afghan skipper Asghar Stanikzai. Samiullah Shenwari and Gulbadin Naib, the script seemed familiar for the Afghanistan batsmen. They were in trouble when they found themselves at 56/5 at the end of the 12th over. The task of leading the Afghan revival fell on the shoulders of Najibullah Zadran. He received decent support from the tail-enders, including Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan to ensure that they did indeed have a score to defend. After 20 grueling overs, the Afghan innings closed at 123/7.

The exclusion of Chris Gayle meant that late addition Evin Lewis made his T20I debut for the West Indies. However, his debut was one to forget as he failed to get off the mark despite facing 7 deliveries. Johnson Charles signaled intent with a 15 ball 22. After scoring a rather uncharacteristic 11, Andre Fletcher made his way back to the dressing room following a disastrous hamstring injury.

The Windies, however, failed to replicate the form they had shown in the previous fixtures of the tournament. While Darren Sammy and co. failed to decode the Nagpur wicket, the Afghanistan spinners, in particular, made sure that they gave the West Indies batsmen plenty. Rashid Khan cleaned up Marlon Samuels before foxing wicketkeeper-batsman Denesh Ramdin. Dwayne Bravo attempted to find some sort of form with the bat as he knocked the ball around, attempting to rotate the strike. However, he too perished to the impeccable spin bowling from the Afghan spinners.

Carlos Brathwaite slammed twin sixes rather effortlessly as he put the Windies within touching distance of the total. However, Andre Fletcher could not smash the ball given his excruciating pain to give the West Indies the win. A West Indian celebration then for the men in blue from Afghanistan as they danced their way into World T20 history.

Brief Scores:

Afghanistan – 123/7 in 20 overs (Zadran 48*; Badree 3/14)

West Indies – 117/8 in 20 overs (Bravo 28; Nabi 2/26)

Man of the Match: Najibullah Zadran (Afghanistan)

How did Twitter react to the match? – Twitter Reactions: Afghanistan register a historic win over West Indies