Afghanistan\u2019s under-19 side began their ICC Men\u2019s U19 Cricket World Cup campaign with a 28-run victory over South Africa on Friday, successfully defending a strong first-innings total in Windhoek.<\/p>\n
Batting first, Afghanistan U19 posted 266 for eight in their 50 overs, built around half-centuries from Faisal Khan Shinozada (81), Khalid Ahmadzai (74) and Uzairullah Khan Niazi (51 not out). Faisal and Khalid added a pivotal 150-run partnership for the second wicket, lifting Afghanistan to 181 for one after 34.3 overs.<\/p>\n
In reply, South Africa U19 were bowled out for 238 in 47.4 overs despite a steady start, as Afghanistan\u2019s bowlers applied sustained pressure through the middle overs. Hafeez Zadran returned figures of 1 for 19 to break a key partnership, while Aziz Miakhil (1 for 28) struck early. Khatir Stanikzai and Abdul Aziz Khan picked up two wickets apiece as South Africa lost momentum during the chase.<\/p>\n
South Africa reached 124 for four before Afghanistan tightened their grip, taking regular wickets to close out the match and secure a confident opening win in the tournament.<\/p>\n
The victory gives Afghanistan an early boost in the ICC Men\u2019s U19 Cricket World Cup, which is being co-hosted by Zimbabwe and Namibia.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Afghanistan\u2019s under-19 side began their ICC Men\u2019s U19 Cricket World Cup campaign with a 28-run victory over South…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":27978,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[52],"tags":[131],"class_list":{"0":"post-27977","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-south-africa","8":"tag-south-africa"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27977","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=27977"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/27977\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/27978"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=27977"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=27977"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/africa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=27977"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}