Afghanistan captain Asghar Stanikzai on Sunday said his side would head into next year’s Cricket World Cup aiming to lift the trophy, after capping a remarkable recovery in qualifying by thrashing the West Indies.
Both Afghanistan and the West Indies had already made sure of their places in next year’s World Cup by topping the 10-team qualifying tournament in Zimbabwe.
Mohammad Shahzad starred as Afghanistan laid down a marker ahead of the tournament in England and Wales by romping to a seven-wicket victory.
Photo: AP
“This victory will give us the required boost to work extremely hard over the next 14 months and like the other nine sides [we] will arrive in England and Wales firmly believing we can win the World Cup,” Stanikzai said.
Afghanistan had looked set to miss out on a second straight World Cup appearance after slumping to three straight defeats in the group stage of qualifying, but Sunday’s win made it five straight victories as they qualified with help from results elsewhere.
“This is nothing but a miracle that we have won this tournament,” added Stanikzai, whose team are set to play their maiden Test against India in Bangalore in June. “This is by far Afghanistan’s greatest victory. Beating the mighty Windies in the final of a tournament which is no less than a mini-World Cup is something like a dream come true for all of us. The boys have shown what they are capable of. If we have come this far in 10 years, I leave it to you to decide where we can be in the next 10 years.”
Leg-spinner Rashid Khan became the fastest bowler ever to reach 100 one-day international wickets as the Windies were bowled out for 204, before big-hitting opener Shahzad smashed 84 as Afghanistan knocked off the runs with 9.2 overs to spare.
“I’m proud of my boys. We came here to achieve a target and various boys put their hands up,” Windies skipper Jason Holder said. “We had a quick turnaround between games, but I’m proud of them for sticking in. Obviously disappointed not to win this final, but we had some great performances throughout. I want to thank my team for their support.”
Taiwanese world No. 1 women’s doubles star Hsieh Su-wei on Saturday overcame a first-set loss to win her opening match at the Madrid Open. Top seeds Hsieh and partner Elise Mertens of Belgium, with whom she last month won her fourth Indian Wells women’s doubles title, bounced back from a rocky first set to beat Asia Muhammad of the US and Aldila Sutjiadi of Indonesia 2-6, 6-4, 10-2. Hsieh and Mertens were next to face Heather Watson of the UK and Xu Yifan of China in the round of 16. Thirty-eight-year-old Hsieh last month reclaimed her world No. 1 spot after her Indian
EYES ON THE PRIZE: Armed with three solid men’s singles shuttlers and doubles Olympic champions, Taiwan aim to make their first Thomas Cup semi-final, Chou Tien-chen said Taiwanese badminton star Tai Tzu-ying yesterday quickly dispatched Malaysia’s Goh Jin Wei in straight sets, while her male counterpart Chou Tien-chen beat Germany’s Kai Schaefer, as Taiwan’s women’s and men’s teams won their Group B opening rounds of the TotalEnergies BWF Thomas and Uber Cup Finals in Chengdu, China. World No. 5 Tai beat Goh 21-19, 22-20 in a speedy 33 minutes, her fourth straight victory over the world No. 24 shuttler since they first faced each other in the quarter-finals of the 2018 Malaysia Open, where Tai went on to win the women’s singles title. Malaysia followed up Tai’s opening victory
Chen Yi-tung (陳奕通) secured a historic Olympic berth on Sunday by winning the senior men’s foil event at the 2024 Asia Oceania Zonal Olympic Fencing Qualifiers in United Arab Emirates. Chen defeated Samuel Elijah of Singapore 15-4 in the final in Dubai to secure the only wild card in the event, making him the first male Olympian fencer from Taiwan in 36 years and only the sixth Taiwanese fencer to ever qualify for the quadrennial event. The last appearance by a Taiwanese male fencer at the Olympics was in 1988, when Wang San-tsai (王三財) and Cheng Ming-hsiang (鄭明祥) competed in Seoul. The
Rafael Nadal on Tuesday lost in straight sets to 31st-ranked Jiri Lehecka in the fourth round at the Madrid Open, while Taiwan’s Hsieh Su-wei advanced to the semi-finals in the women’s doubles. Nadal said that he was feeling good about his progress following his latest injury layoff. Nadal called it a “positive week” in every way and said his body held up well. “I was able to play four matches, a couple of tough matches,” Nadal said. “So very positive, winning three matches, playing four matches at the high level of tennis. I enjoyed a lot playing at home. I leave here with