Holder, Pooran fire Windies to 311

All eyes were transfixed on Christopher Henry Gayle as he walked out at Headingley for his last World Cup game. The buzz around was he might go out in glory against low-in-confidence Afghanistan but Dawlat Zadran did not allow that to happen. He teased him with a full and wide ball outside off stump and Gayle could not hold back his T20 instincts as he went chasing after it and edged it behind, departing for 7.

Evin Lewis and Shai Hope ensured the loss Gayle did not affect the rhythm of the innings as the pair rebuilt it with some smart batting. They were quite severe on anything that was even a bit off-radar and also picked up the quick singles to keep the scoreboard rotation. Lewis got to his fifty off 62 balls and added an 88-run stand for the second wicket.

The introduction of spin after the first powerplay did slow down the scoring as Afghanistan started to build pressure which in turn worked in Rashid Khan scalping Lewis for 58. Hope continued to anchor along at one end and Hetmyer joined him to provide more impetus to the innings. He struck his fourth ball for a six and made his intentions clear.

Having been promoted over previous games centurion Nicholas Pooran, Hetymer kept going after Mohammad Nabi striking him for a couple of fours and a six in the next two overs. But with such adventurism comes a lot of risk and the left-hander found that out when he was dismissed for a 31-ball 39 by Zadran in the first over of his second spell.

With the run-rate hovering at five-per-over, the onus fell on Hope to provide the momentum in the last 15 overs but he was not able to do that. Having smashed Nabi for a couple of boundaries in the over, he fell to the offie’s cunningness as the change in angle to round the wicket worked with the right-hander holing out to deep midwicket while playing the slog sweep.

West Indies captain Jason Holder walked out at number six in the 38th over and had the big responsibility of taking his side to a total that would give Afghanistan no chance of hunting it down. The duo knocked around for the next few overs and began the charge in 44th over with Holder launching a six off Rashid.

The next six overs saw Holder and Pooran teeing off and smashing 78 runs. The latter got to his fifty and took his tournament tally 367 - the highest run-scorer for West Indies. They didn’t spare any bowler, especially Zadran who went for 35 in his last two overs. Sayed Shirzad started the final over well with three dots including wickets of the two set batsmen, but Carlos Brathwaite’s 4-ball 14 ensured West Indies went past 300.