Afghanistan Under 19 team produced a dominating performance defeating the hosts South Africa by 7 wickets in the opening Group D match of 13th edition of Under 19 World Cup played at Diamond Oval, Kimberley on Friday.
South Africa captain Bryce Parsons won the toss and decided to bat first. It was not an ideal start to the innings as Fazal Haque produced a beauty to dismiss Jonathan Bird for 0. Haque then dismissed the other opener Andrew Louw to leave South Africa at 7 for 2. Bryce Parsons and Luke Beaufort steadied the innings for the hosts with some positive stroke play. At the end of 10 overs, South Africa Under 19 were 56 for 2.
After the power play overs, the left-arm spinner Noor Ahmed got the breakthrough dismissing South Africa captain Bryce Parsons for 40. Parsons and Beaufort added 55 runs for the 3rd wicket. The right arm leg spinner Shafiqullah Ghafari wreaked havoc among the South African batsmen taking wickets of Levert Manje, Jack Lees, Khanya Cotani, and Tiaan van Vuuren to break the backbone of South African batting line up. Gerald Coetzee played some lovely shots against Afghan spinners which helped the hosts reach beyond 100. Ghafari struck again by dismissing Achille Cloete and then Coetzee to bowl out South Africa Under 19 for 129 in 29.1 overs.
In reply to 129 runs to win, Farhan Zakhil and Ibrahim Zadran got the team off to aggressively start putting on 26 runs for the opening wicket. Cloete got the breakthrough for South Africa dismissing Zakhil with a leg-side catch. Zadran and Imran Mir showed their class against the hosts’ bowling line up. At the end of 10 overs, Afghan Under 19 were well placed at 53 for 1.
After the power play overs, Mir made the batting look easy and put pressure on the South African bowlers. Ibrahim looked settled taking singles and rotating strikes. Mir reached his fifty off just 37 balls and put Afghan on the front foot. Van Vuuren struck to dismiss the dangerous Mir for 57. Mir and Zadran added 80 runs for the 2nd wicket. Zadran looked comfortable with his stroke play and reached his fifty off 61 balls. He was dismissed by Cloete before the winning runs. Abid Mohammadi hit the winning runs to give Afghanistan Under 19 a commanding 7 wicket win with 150 balls to spare.
Afghanistan Under 19 130 for 3 in 25 overs (Imran Mir 57, Ibrahim Zadran 52, Cloete 2/20) beat South Africa Under 19 129 in 29.1 overs (Bryce Parsons 40, Gerald Coetzee 38, Shafiqullah Ghafari 6/15) by 7 wickets.
For his match-winning spell of 6 for 15, Ghafari has been named the man of the match. There will be three matches tomorrow as Bangladesh will take on Zimbabwe in Group C at JB Marks Oval, Potchefstroom, Australia versus West Indies in Group B match at Diamond Oval, Kimberly, and United Arab Emirates versus Canada in Group D match at Mangaung Oval, Bloemfontein.
