Afghanistan’s wonderful seven-wicket win, on Sunday, over the West Indies in the ICC World Cup Qualifiers 2018 final at Harare Sports Club brought them to the next year’s World Cup in England.
It will be definitely the proud moment for Afghanistan for making it to the biggest ICC event after losing the first three games to almost being dumped out of the Qualifier tournament.
Wicket-keeper batsman –Mohammad Shahzad’s 84 and Rahmat Shah’s 51 played a crucial role in chasing the target 205 in just 40.4 overs against the West Indies in Harare.
Well, both the sides have qualified for the next year’s World Cup after being victorious in the Qualifiers tournament in Zimbabwe.
Afghanistan captain –Asghar Stanikzai is happy to take a step forward to his country’s dream, saying qualifying for World Cup is big news for the Afghanistan people. He also said that the stunning win will boost their confidence in believing “we can win the World Cup”.
As per AFP, Stanikzai told reporters after the match, “We are very happy because this was our dream. This is not just our dream; this is our Afghanistan's dream. We beat them (Windies) in the practice game and the Super Sixes too. And it was big news because Windies are a full-member team. I feel good now. Afghanistan people wanted the cup, that's why I wanted to play in the game.
I took the risk [talking about his health and comeback] but now it's good. This victory will give us the required boost to work extremely hard over the next 14 months and like the other nine sides, will arrive in England and Wales firmly believing we can win the World Cup.”
Stanikzai signed off by saying, “This is nothing but a miracle that we have won this tournament. This is by far Afghanistan’s greatest victory. Beating the mighty Windies in the final of a tournament which is no less than a mini-World Cup, is something like a dream comes true for all of us. The boys have shown what they are capable of. If we have come this far in 10 years, I leave it to you to decide where we can be in the next 10 years.”
