cancelled a series<\/a> against Afghanistan in protest, they claimed, at the Taliban\u2019s treatment of women.<\/p>\nRahmat Shah hit his third successive half-century for Afghanistan while skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi made an undefeated 56, also his third fifty in a row.<\/p>\n
Shah had scored 77 against Pakistan and 62 in the win over Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
On Friday, he hit a 54-ball 52 with eight fours and shared a 74-run third-wicket partnership with Shahidi after openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (10) and Ibrahim Zadran (20) had departed cheaply.<\/p>\n
Shah fell, caught and bowled by Saqib Zulfiqar with 129 on the board and his team well set for victory.<\/p>\n
Shahidi\u2019s 56 came off 64 balls and followed his 80 against India and 58 in the match with Sri Lanka.<\/p>\n
Earlier, Afghanistan restricted error-plagued Netherlands to 179 all out.<\/p>\n
The Netherlands, who still harboured a slim hope of squeezing into the semi-finals, won the toss and opted to bat but were undone by seeing four of their batsmen run-out.<\/p>\n
They recovered from seeing 39-year-old opener Wesley Barresi dismissed by spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the first over.<\/p>\n
Max O\u2019Dowd and Colin Ackermann put on 70 for the second wicket when a series of calamities put them on the back foot.<\/p>\n
O\u2019Dowd was on 42 when he was beaten by a direct hit by Azmatullah Omarzai from fine leg.<\/p>\n
With the score on 92-2, Ackermann (29) failed to make his ground when Ikram Alikhil whipped off the bails from a smart throw by Rashid Khan.<\/p>\n
On the next delivery, skipper Scott Edwards swept, lost sight of the ball and as he wandered aimlessly out of his crease Alikhil ran him out without scoring.<\/p>\n
Mohammad Nabi and teenage wrist spinner Noor Ahmad then sent back Bas de Leede and Saqib Zulfiqar with Logan van Beek dismissed thanks to a smart stumping by wicketkeeper Alikhil.<\/p>\n
Sybrand Engelbrecht had made 58 with six fours when he became the fourth run-out of the innings, failing to beat Nabi\u2019s throw from midwicket.<\/p>\n
That left the Dutch on 152-8 before they went on to be bowled out after 46.3 overs.<\/p>\n
Nabi was the pick of the bowlers with the veteran off-spinner taking 3-28.<\/p>\n
\u201cWhen the pressure is on the batsman you know they will make mistakes and bad calls. So that helped us get the four run-outs,\u201d said Nabi.<\/p>\n<\/p><\/div>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Afghanistan swept past the Netherlands by seven wickets on Friday to boost their chances of reaching the World Cup semi-finals. Chasing 180 to win, Afghanistan reached their target with 111 balls to spare to clinch a fourth win at the tournament to add to victories over defending champions England, Sri Lanka and Pakistan. They now […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":20916,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"site-sidebar-layout":"default","site-content-layout":"","ast-site-content-layout":"default","site-content-style":"default","site-sidebar-style":"default","ast-global-header-display":"","ast-banner-title-visibility":"","ast-main-header-display":"","ast-hfb-above-header-display":"","ast-hfb-below-header-display":"","ast-hfb-mobile-header-display":"","site-post-title":"","ast-breadcrumbs-content":"","ast-featured-img":"","footer-sml-layout":"","ast-disable-related-posts":"","theme-transparent-header-meta":"","adv-header-id-meta":"","stick-header-meta":"","header-above-stick-meta":"","header-main-stick-meta":"","header-below-stick-meta":"","astra-migrate-meta-layouts":"default","ast-page-background-enabled":"default","ast-page-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-4)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"ast-content-background-meta":{"desktop":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"tablet":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""},"mobile":{"background-color":"var(--ast-global-color-5)","background-image":"","background-repeat":"repeat","background-position":"center center","background-size":"auto","background-attachment":"scroll","background-type":"","background-media":"","overlay-type":"","overlay-color":"","overlay-opacity":"","overlay-gradient":""}},"fifu_image_url":"https:\/\/i.dawn.com\/large\/2023\/11\/03200131279dba3.jpg?r=200252","fifu_image_alt":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[192],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-20915","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-islamabad-news"],"acf":[],"aioseo_notices":[],"aioseo_head":"\n\t\t\n\t