Ramandeep Singh’s half-century could not be saved India A From a 20 point loss Afghanistan A at Emerging Team Asian Cup The T20 semi-final was played in Al Amerat, Oman on Friday. Afghanistan A will now face Sri Lanka A In the final.
Afghanistan A chose to bat first and posted 206/4, the highest total of the tournament. This was made possible by a strong 137-run opening partnership between Sediqullah Atal, who scored 83 runs off 52 balls, and Zubaid Akbari, who scored 64 runs off 41 balls.
India A struggled to chase down and lost five wickets till the 13th over. Ramandeep Singh and Nishant Sindhu put together a quick-fire 68-run partnership off just 31 balls. But when India needed 53 runs in the last three overs, Nishant was out for 23 runs in 13 balls due to miscommunication.
Afghanistan’s Abdul Rahman, who took 2/32, bowled the final over and dismissed Ramandeep off the last ball to restrict India to 186/7.
Sri Lanka A had earlier defeated Pakistan Shaheens to secure a spot in the finals. They restricted Pakistan to 135/9 and chased down the target in 16.3 overs to win by 7 wickets. Leg-spinner Dushan Hemantha took 4/21 while Nipun Ranskika and Eshan Malinga took two wickets each.
Afghanistan A got off to a strong start as Zubaid and Sediqullah dominated the Indian bowlers, posting 61 not out in the sixth innings. Zubaid hit four sixes and five fours while Sediqullah added four sixes and seven fours.
After Zubaid was dismissed, Karim Janat continued his aggressive play with a quick 41 off 20 balls, including two sixes and four fours. Rasikh Salam delivered an important spell taking three wickets, including two in successive balls, to curb Afghanistan’s scoring in the final over.
India A got off to a shaky start as they lost three wickets in the powerplay overs. Allah Mohammed Ghazanfar took the wickets of Abhishek Sharma (7) and Prabhsimran Singh (19), while Tilak Varma (16) fell to Abdul Rahman to leave India at 48/3 in 5.4 overs. Ayush Badoni (31) and Nehal Wadera (20) tried to stabilize the innings, but Afghanistan collapsed again.
Brief score: Afghanistan A 206/4 in 20 overs (Sediqullah Atal 83, Zubaid Akbari 64, Karim Janat 41; Rasikh Salam 3/25) They beat India A by 186/7 in 20 overs. (Ramandeep Singh 64) 20 runs each.
