Pooran, Chase secure series win for Windies

A brilliant knock by Nicholas Pooran and fantastic bowling by Roston Chase meant West Indies beat Afghanistan by 47 runs in the second match of Azizi Bank ODI Cup to take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three-match series with a match to go.

Home Media International 09 Nov 2019

Pooran, Chase secure series win for Windies

A brilliant knock by Nicholas Pooran and fantastic bowling by Roston Chase meant West Indies beat Afghanistan by 47 runs in the second match of Azizi Bank ODI Cup to take an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the three-match series with a match to go.

Having won the toss, Afghanistan’s skipper Rashid Khan opted to field first at Ekana Stadium, Lucknow. West Indies posted 247/9 in their innings setting a target of 248 for Afghanistan. Windies’ opening pair Shai Hope and Evan Lewis put on a partnership of 98 runs for the first wicket before the former was out for 43 runs. Lewis followed soon losing his wicket for 54 to part-time bowler Javed Ahmadi. Shemron Hetmyer played a good hand scoring 34 runs as the wickets continued to fall for the men in maroon.

A belligerent Nicholas Pooran, who was awarded the Man of the Match award later, played a match winning knock as he took on Afghan bowlers with a terrific knock of 67 from just 50 deliveries hitting three sixes and 7 fours in his innings helping his team post a decent total on board.

In response, Afghanistan had a poor start losing opener Javed Ahmadi in the very first over before Rahmat Shah and Hazratullah Zazai tried to stabilize the Afghan innings. However, after Shah lost his wicket for 33 runs to a run out, the wickets followed at regular intervals with the team struggling at 109/5 in the 27th over at one point. A 68-run partnership between Najibullah Zadran and Mohamamd Nabi put Afghanistan back on track as the pair looked set at the crease.

Much to the disappointment of Afghan team, both the set batsmen were out within a space of one over to further detioriorate Afghanistan’s chances of winning the match and keeping their chance at winning the series alive.

West Indies’ Roston Chase, who was Man of the Match in the previous match, continued with the great form with his bowling this time around taking three wickets for just 30.