Dambulla: Half-centuries from skipper Imran Mir and Bahir Shah helped five wickets from Abdullah Ahmadzai to thrash Afghanistan A by eight wickets in a rain-affected one-day tri-series at the Rangiri Dambulla International Stadium on Thursday.
In the match which was initially reduced to 49 overs apiece, Afghanistan A captain Imran won the toss and elected to field first.
Batting first, India A scored 349 for 9 in the allotted overs thanks to half-centuries from Prabsimran Singh, Rudraj Gaekwad and skipper Tilak Verma.
The right-handed opener top-scored for India A with a blistering 84 off 69 balls with 14 fours, followed by Gaekwad and Verma with 66 each.
Apart from them, left-arm opener Vaibhav Suryavanshi and batting all-rounder Suryansh Shedge made significant contributions with 44 and 40 respectively.
Ahmadzai led Afghanistan A’s bowling charge with a five-wicket haul, but the price was high as he conceded 68 runs in his nine overs. He was assisted by Farmanullah with three wickets and Imran with one wicket.
Chasing a target of 350, Afghanistan A got off to a blistering start and were 177/2 in 25.5 overs when play was stopped by rain and the side found themselves four runs ahead of Duckworth Louis Stern’s (TLS) score.
Captain Imran led Afghanistan A’s tally with an unbeaten 75 off 70 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes, followed by middle-order batsman Bahir Shah’s 51 off 52 balls with the help of 5 fours.
Anukul Roy and Arshad Khan took one wicket each for India A.
The narrow four-run win helped Afghanistan A pip India A to the top spot in the one-day tri-series rankings due to better net run rate.
On the other hand, Sri Lanka A, the hosts of the tournament, are at the last place after losing their opening match against India A by 8 runs.