Courtesy: ACC
On Friday, October 25, India A suffered a defeat by 20 runs against Afghanistan A in the second semi-final of the ACC Men’s T20 Emerging Teams Asia Cup 2024. At the Al Amerat Cricket Ground Oman Cricket (Ministry Turf 1), India A were unable to chase down a tough target of 207 runs despite an unbeaten fifty from Ramandeep Singh, which meant that Afghanistan A will be playing the final against Sri Lanka A in two day’s time.
For the unversed, after winning the toss, the captain of Afghanistan A, Darwish Rasooli, won the toss and decided to bat first, and they got off to a fantastic start against the India A bowlers. The openers Zubaid Akbari (64 off 41) and Sediqullah Atal (83 off 52) matched each other stroke for stroke, to put together a stand of 137 runs in 14.2 overs, which helped Afghanistan get into a strong position.
Karim Janat, who walked out to bat at number three, scored 41 off 20 with four fours and two maximums, to provide the late impetus to the Afghanistan innings, ensuring that they reached 206/4 in their allotted 20 overs. Rasikh Salam was the pick of the bowlers from India A with figures of 3/25 in his four-over spell, which was crucial for his team to not let the opponents go out of reach at the halfway stage of the knockout game.
In the run chase, India A lost the wickets of Abhishek Sharma, Prabhsimran Singh, and Tilak Varma in the power play stage, to find themselves in some trouble against Afghanistan A. Shortly after, with the scorecard reading 100/5 in 12.4 overs, the target looked quite a fair way away but a 68-run stand for the sixth wicket between Ramandeep Singh and Nishant Sindhu kept India A’s hopes hanging by a thread.
But, the pressure of the insurmountable required run rate was too much for Ramandeep Singh as well despite him scoring 64 off 34 with eight fours and two maximums in his innings. His dismissal on the last ball of the semi-final ended the tournament for India A on a tough note with a score of 186/7 after AM Ghaznafar and Abdul Rahman picked up a couple of wickets each.
