An crowd of 20,500 was in attendance at the Bharat Ratna Shri Atal Bihari Vajpayee Ekana Cricket Stadium, Lucknow as Afghanistan kept their semifinals hopes alive by defeating Netherlands by 7 wickets on Friday.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat first, Wesley Barresi who came in place of Vikramjit Singh was trapped leg before wicket in the very first over.
Max O’Dowd (42) and Colin Ackermann (29) then added 70 runs for the second wicket stand before the former was run out by a brilliant direct hit by Azmatullah Omarzai at fine leg for 42.
Ackermann was dismissed by a brilliant piece of fielding by Rashid Khan and skipper Scott Edwards was dismissed for a first ball duck.
Sybrand Engelbrecht scored a valuable 58 to take Netherlands to 179 in 46.3 overs.
In response, openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran got Afghanistan off to a solid start. The pair added 27 runs for the opening stand before the former (10) gloved a delivery from van Beek to wicketkeeper Edwards down the legside.
Ibrahim Zadran then dragged a delivery from wrist spinner Roelf van der Merwe back onto his stumps for 20.
Rahmat Shah and Hashmatullah Shahidi featured in a 74 run stand for the third wicket before the former was caught and bowled by Saqib Zulfiqar for a 54 ball-52.
However Skipper Shahidi along with Azmatullah Omarzai shared an unbeaten 52 run stand for the third wicket to take Afghanistan to a comfortable 7 wicket win.