Farooqi, Naib power Afghanistan into last eight

TAROUBA, Trinidad (CMC):

Afghanistan became the fifth team to qualify for the Super Eight quarterfinals of the ICC Men’s Twenty20 World Cup after left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi and Gulbadin Naib played leading roles in a seven-wicket win against Papua New Guinea on Thursday in Trinidad.

Farooqi, 23, bagged three for 16 from his allotted four overs and moved his tally of wickets to a tournament-leading 12, and the Afghans bowled out the Papuans for 95 in 19.5 overs in their Group C match under the lights at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.

Afghanistan stumbled to 39 for two at the close of the Power Play, but Naib settled the chase with an unbeaten 49 off 36 balls, and they finished on 101 for three to seal the win with 29 balls remaining in the contest.

The win was the third on the trot for the Afghans and they qualify from Group C along with co-hosts West Indies, joining favourites India, double crown world champions Australia, and title hopefuls South Africa in the Super Eight.

“It’s nice to have won [this match] and got qualification out of the way,” Afghanistan coach Jonathan Trott, the former England batsman, said.

“To come to a World Cup and win three straight is a nice feeling, but there’s also the realisation and reality that we haven’t won anything yet. We only achieved the group stage, and we’ve got some important matches coming up that we’re going to have to play well in.”

The result confirmed that New Zealand, who have reached the semi-finals in each of the last three T20 World Cups and were beaten finalists three years ago, will not progress to the second stage of the tournament.

Afghanistan beat them by 84 runs when they met last Friday at the Guyana National Stadium (GNS) before West Indies prevailed over them by 13 runs this past Wednesday at the BLCA, meaning the Black Caps will exit a World Cup before the last four for the first time in a decade.

With the tournament organisers using a unique predetermined system of seeding to structure the fixtures in the Super Eight, the result also renders the final Group C match between the Afghans and West Indies on Monday under the lights at the Daren Sammy Cricket Ground in St Lucia a joust for bragging rights between the two sides – but Trott thought differently.

“We still have one game left, an important group game, and that’s going to be a good gauge of where we are against a powerful West Indies side, who won an incredible game [on Wednesday] from the position they were in,” he added.

The loss was the third on the bounce for PNG after West Indies beat them by five wickets two Sundays ago at the GNS, where Uganda also beat them by three wickets in a low-scoring contest, and it meant they too, are eliminated ahead of their final match against New Zealand on Monday morning at the BLCA.