Afghanistan have recorded their first win of the 2016 Under-19 World Cup with a four wicket defeat of Canada today at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.
Canada batted first after winning the toss and quickly saw three of their top four out for ducks, and struggled to get hold of the innings from then on. A 62 run partnership for the fifth wicket between Abraash Khan and Arslan Khan was the sole bright spot of their innings.
The two scored 33 and 38 respectively, with the next highest score being Kurt Ramdath's 20. Shamsurrahman was the pick of the Afghan bowlers with 3-21 as Canada were bowled out for just 147, the final wicket falling from the final ball of the innings.
Afghanistan's reply started with an opening partnership of 46 between Karim Janat and Ihsanullah which ended when Janat was out for 29. Ihsanullah was out for 31 four overs later, whilst Tariq went on to top score with 56.
Miraj Patel took three wickets in his first three overs, but Afghanistan were already cruising to victory by that point. They completed their four wicket win with more than half their quota of 50 overs still to come.
Both teams will play their plate competition quarter finals on Friday. Afghanistan will be playing Fiji, whilst Canada will take on the loser of tomorrow's West Indies v Zimbabwe match.