[caption id="attachment_258622" align="aligncenter" width="500"]
West Indies' Chris Gayle, right, celebrates the dismissal of Afghanistan's Ikram Ali, left, during the Cricket World Cup match between Afghanistan and West Indies at Headingley in Leeds, England on Thursday.[/caption]
Eastern Mirror Desk
Dimapur, July 4: West Indies beat Afghanistan by 23 runs in their final group match at the Cricket World Cup on Thursday at Headingley Carnegie stadium.
Afghanistan appeared to be on course towards chasing down 311 runs put up by West Indies and register their first victory in the tournament after Ikram Ali Khil, who scored a calculated 86 runs from 93 balls, and Rahmat Shah, who scored 62 runs of 78 balls, shared a century stand. Asghar Afghan scored 40 of just 32 balls but that was not enough.
Carlos Brathwaite (4-63) and Kemar Roach (3-37) tore through the middle and lower order of the Afghanistan team, limiting their score to 288 in 50 overs. Chris Gayle also contributed with the ball by taking a crucial wicket and giving away just 28 runs off six overs.
Electing to bat first after winning the toss, West Indies put up a total of 311-6 helped by Shai Hope’s score of 77 runs of 92 balls and half centuries from Nicholas Pooran (58 runs of 43 balls) and Evin Lewis (58 runs of 78 balls). Jason Holder also scored 45 runs off 34.
Dawlat Zadran claimed 2-73 for Afghanistan while Rashid Khan (1-52) and Sayed Shirad (1-56) took a wicket each for Afghanistan.
