AFG vs NED | 3rd ODI: No respite for the Dutch as Zadran, Qais Ahmad shine in Afghan clean sweep

If perfect scripting were to happen in sports and most specifically cricket, then the Afghanistan team seem to have mastered it as far as its three-match ODI series against the Netherlands was concerned. In the third match in a row, it managed to bowl out the Dutch even as Scott Edwards hit third consecutive fifty. 

The Afghanistan team once again won the toss and like in the first two matches, chose to bat first. If there was an improvement in the second game from the first one as they reached 237 from 222, in the third game they improved a bit further and crossed the 250 run mark courtesy of some brilliant slog over hitting by Najibullah Zadran. 

It was Zadran’s 59 ball 71 coupled with debutant Riaz Hassan’s fifty and 48 from Rahmat Shah that took Afghanistan to a very tough total to chase. 

The Netherlands started off well in their chase with the openers Colin Ackermann and Edwards putting up a 103 runs stand for the first wicket. However, it once again became evident that the Dutch middle-order was in no way fit to fight the Afghan spin and soon after the partnership break, wickets started falling. While Edwards scored 54, Ackermann top-scored with 81 off 96 balls. 

Apart from those two, Saqib Zulfiqar was the only other batter to get into double figures from the Netherlands side. 

For Afghanistan, another ODI debutant Qais Ahmad picked three wickets while experienced Rashid Khan picked the crucial wicket of Ackermann alongside that of Philippe Boissevain. 

With the 3-0 clean sweep, Afghanistan reached the fifth position in the Cricket World Cup Super League 2023. They now have 60 points from six games, meaning that they have won all their possible matches.