Hong Kong beat Afghanistan which is good and bad for Zimbabwe

Afghanistan are on the brink of being eliminated from the ICC Cricket World Qualifier 2018 super six race after a dramatic and unexpected 30 run loss to Hong Kong at Bulawayo Athletic Club on Wednesday.

Hong Kong spin bowler Ehsan Khan celebrates bowling Afghanistan batsman Rahman Shah at BAC in Bulawayo (©ICC)

Hong Kong recovered from 90-4 at some point to post 241-8 from their 50 overs. Anshuman Rath’s 65 was critical to that effort.

A confident Afghanistan would have hunted it down but the chase really never got going and shots only came when it was all over really.

Afghanistan, who entered into this tournament as red-hot favourites, could not deal with Ehsan Khan who picked up 4-33 off his 9 overs. Only Dalwat Zadran with his 40 at the end scored at more than a run a ball.

Now, this is good news for Zimbabwe because it means they are pretty much within sight of the super six.

But bad in that this is how it works. All points won in the groups will be carried over to the Super Six stage apart from those gained against the bottom two from each group.

If neither Afghanistan nor Nepal who Zimbabwe have beaten go through, it means the Chevrons have to beat both Hong Kong and Scotland on Saturday and Monday respectively to carry points into the next round. Achieving this will mean they simply have to win two of their three matches really to make it to the finals of the World Cup.

The other good thing for Zimbabwe is that it is pretty much clear what they have to do now.