MacLeod blasts Afghans away in opener

Afghanistan's dream for a World Cup berth got off to a horrible start when they suffered a massive seven-wicket defeat against Scotland in one of the four opening day fixtures of the 2018 World Cup qualifiers in Zimbabwe yesterday.

It was also a forgettable debut for Rashid Khan as the youngest captain in ODI history. The young leg-spinner, who entered the match as the world's top-ranked T20I and ODI bowler, failed to make an impression as Scotland, chasing Afghanistan competitive 255 all out in 49.4 overs, walloped their way to 256-3 in 47.2 overs with Calum MacLeod smashing an overpowering unbeaten 157 off 146 balls. The experienced right-hander, who shared 208 runs for the third wicket with Richie Barrington (67), hit 23 fours and a six.

It was a rare off day for Rashid. He scored a duck with the bat and then conceded 68 runs in his nine overs for the wicket of Barrington.

Rashid stepped in to lead Afghanistan in the absence of Asghar Stanikzai, who has been diagnosed with appendicitis. Interestingly, at 19 years and 165 days Rashid replaced Bangladesh's Rajin Saleh as the youngest captain. Rajin, at 20 years and 297 days, led Bangladesh against South Africa in an ICC Champions Trophy game in Birmingham in 2004.

Afghanistan's next Group B game is against hosts Zimbabwe at the same venue tomorrow. The home side recorded a massive 116-run win against Nepal in the other fixture in Bulawayo. In the other two games Ireland beat the Netherlands by 93 runs in D\L method and UAE defeated PNG by 56 runs, also in D/L method at Harare.

SCORES IN BRIEF

AFGHANISTAN: 255 all out in 49.4 overs (Shahzad 30, Nabi 92, Najibullah 67; Wheal 3-36 , Sharif 2-46, Berrington 3-42)

SCOTLAND: 256 for 3 in 47.2 overs (MacLeod 157 not out, Berrington 67; Mujeeb 2-47)

Result: Scotland won by 7 wickets.

Player-of-the-match: Calum MacLeod.

ZIMBABWE: 380 for 6 in 50 overs (Zhuwao 41, Mire 52, Taylor 100, Ervine 34, Raza 123; Kami 2-82, Regmi 2-69)

NEPAL: 264 for 8 in 50 overs (Malla 32, Khadka 40, Airee 23, Vesawkar 52, Aarif 50, Paudel 30; Vitori 2-46, Raza 3-48)

Result: Zimbabwe won by 116 runs.

Player-of-the-match: Sikandar Raza.

IRELAND: 268 for 7 in 50 overs (Porterfield 47, Stirling 20, Joyce 32, Balbirnie 68, N O'Brien 49; Van der Gugten 3-59)         

NETHERLANDS: 149 all out in 32.2 overs (Cooper 19, Ten Doeschate 21, Edwards 26, Van der Gugten 33, Murtagh 3-28, McCarthy 2-28, Rankin 2-19, K O'Brien 2-28)        

Result: Ireland won by 93 runs (D/L method)

UAE: 221 all out in 49.4 overs (Mustafa 95, Ashfaq 50; Nao 2-42, Vanua 4-39)

PNG: 113 all out in 25.5 overs (Amini 24, Soper 19, Vanua 20; Naveed 5-28, Haider 2-21)

Result: UAE won by 56 runs (D/L method)

Player-of-the-match: Mohammad Naveed.