West Indies thrashed by Afghanistan in World Cup warm-up

On a day when captain Jason Holder said it’s about time West Indies win a World Cup, the Caribbean side was humbled by Afghanistan in a World Cup qualifier warm-up game.

After allowing the Afghans to recover from 71-8 to post 163-9 in a rain-affected 35-over match, West Indies stumbled from 80-2 in the 14^th over to 110 all out in 26.4 overs. They eventually lost by 29 runs under the Duckworth/Lewis method after being set a revised target of 139.

Chris Gayle (9) and Shai Hope (1) went cheaply, before Evin Lewis and Marlon Samuels joined forces to stablise the innings. However, 80-2 soon became 88-5 as Lewis (36), Jason Mohammed (0) and Samuels (34) were all dismissed. 

Dawlat Zadran then dislodged Shimron Hetmyer, Rovman Powell and Carlos Brathwaite to claim a hat-trick, finishing with figures of 4-26. Rashid Khan and Sharafuddin Ashraf took two wickets each. Lewis and Samuels were the only batsmen to reach double-figures, with 11 extras being the next highest. 

Earlier, Afghanistan struggled before Samiullah Shenwari (42) and Gulbadin Naib (48) added 91 for the ninth wicket to revive the innings. Sheldon Cottrell took 3-43, while Holder and Kesrick Williams had two each.