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Showing posts with label Scots. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Scots. Show all posts

Thursday 26 February 2015

CWC 2015 - Another Minnow Thriller - Afghanistan beat Scotland

#Afghanistan v #Scotland, #Dunedin
26th Feb 2015

Looks like the #minnows at the World Cup (the associate members of the #ICC) have decided to lighten up contests in what has seen many one-sided games between the top teams.

Yesterday, #Ireland pulled off a stunner against #UAE
Today it was #Afghanistan to repeat the dose on #Scotland.
What a fantastic game!!

On a beautiful Dunedin monring, Afghanistan won the toss and elected to field first.
The Zadrans decided to weave their magic around the #Scots. They captured 7 wickets between them to restrict Scotland to a meagre 210 in their 50 overs. 7 off the 11 Scotland batsmen got starts but none of them could capitalize and play a big innings to put up a respectable total.

The Afghanistan chase of the target began briskly with #JavedAhmadi tonking the ball around a bit. The Scots came back through 2 quick wickets. #AlasdairEvans claiming both wickets.

In walked #SamiullahShenwari to play the innings of his life. He and Ahmadi set out chasing the target with ease and were cruising at 85 for 2 in 18 overs. Simple.

This is when the tide began to turn and how?
#RcihieBerrington and #RossDavey combined in a brilliant spell of bowling to dismiss 5 Afghan batsmen for a paltry 12 runs. Suddenly the score card was reading Afghanistan - 97 for 7.
Game completely in favor of the Scots now. They had it in the bag.

Thats when Shenwari decided otherwise.
He first stitched a 35 run partnership with #DawlatZadran and then an invaluable 60 run partnership with #HamidHassan. At 192 for 8, it looked Afghanistan had the game in their grasp. Shenwari coasting to a well deserved century.

In a moment of madness though, he slapped a delivery from #MajidHaq to deep midwicket boundary where Josh Davey kept his cool and took a wonderful catch. The Scots were delighted. Their biggest thorn and in form batsman was gone with another 19 runs needed to win. Certainly, the win was theirs!

Nope said #ShapoorZadran as he smashed 12 in 10 deliveries and completed the Houdini escape for Afghanistan to win the match by 1 wicket and 3 balls to spare.

Delight and Despair all round. Wonderful scenes of ecstacy from Afghanistan and agony from Scotland. Their first win in a world cup game. Cricket was truly the winner today. Well played both teams ... are the big teams listening? can we get some of these nail-biters from you too?

Man of the Match: Samiullah Shenwari

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Tuesday 24 February 2015

CWC 2015 - Englands Easy Win Against Scotland

#England v #Scotland, #HagleyOval, #Christchurch
23rd Feb 2015

England finally opened their account with 2 points against minnows and neighbors Scotland at the Hagley Oval, Christchurch today.

After two demoralizing and devastating losses to Australia (by 100+ runs) and NewZealand (by 8 wickets and 25 overs to spare) in their opening two games, England did themselves and their confidence some good by winning their game today.

Looking at their form, it was expected that Scotland would put up a fight and look to upset the Englishmen. But, the England team looked like they were on a mission to shrug off those two defeats and start afresh.

Riding on wonderful #allround performance by #MoeenAli (century and two wickets), England won the match by 119 runs and lot of respect kept intact. If they had allowed Scotland to get any closer, they would have been badly hurt further.

To be fait to them, they ran into two dominant sides in their first two games. Both Aus and NZ and clear favorites to win the world cup and England came a cropper against them. They needed a minnow like Scotland to register their first win, but this should give them some confidence going into another crucial match against #SriLanka on 1st Mar 2015 at #Wellington. Very important game in that group.

The abandoned tie between #Ban v #Aus at the #GABBA has already thrown this group split wide open. 

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