Dawlatzai hat-trick caps off big win
Medium-pacer Izatullah Dawlatzai capped off a perfect day for Afghanistan's bowlers with a hat-trick as Afghanistan pummelled Namibia by ten wickets in Windhoek
ESPNcricinfo staff
06-Aug-2013
Afghanistan 354 (Stanikzai 127, Scholtz 5-123) and 5 for 0 beat Namibia 190 and 168 by 10 wickets (Dawlatzai 5-23)
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Scorecard and ball-by-ball details
Medium-pacer Izatullah Dawlatzai capped off a perfect day for the bowlers with a hat-trick as Afghanistan pummelled Namibia by ten wickets in Windhoek with a day to spare and maintained their second position, behind Ireland, in the ICC Intercontinental points table. Dawlatzai cleaned up the last three wickets in his 11th over to complete his third five-wicket haul in two matches and wrap up Namibia's innings soon after they had taken a lead. The openers then took just seven balls to get to the target of five runs to continue Afghanistan's unbeaten run in the tournament.
Afghanistan started the day at 345 for 8, already 155 ahead of Namibia, but Asghar Stanikzai was dismissed by Jason Davidson in the second over of the morning without making any addition to his score of 127. The innings folded on 354, but Afghanistan had taken the bonus points for the 164-run first-innings lead and a strong hold of the game.
Faced with the task of avoiding an innings defeat, Namibia openers started cautiously, but Rahmat Shah provided the first breakthrough in the eighth over of the innings when he got though the defences of Xander Pitchers. The following batsmen didn't get many opportunities to score as the bowlers kept the pressure up and the wickets kept falling. When Dawlatzai picked his first wicket, that of opening batsman Pikky Ya France, Namibia were tottering on 84 for 4 in the 39th over.
The situation got worse for Namibia as they lost two more wickets with the addition of 22 runs to the total, still 56 runs short of making Afghanistan bat again. A face-saving 55-run stand for the seventh wicket between Sarel Burger and Christi Viljoen helped Namibia reduce the deficit to one run. But the dismissal of Viljoen almost brought an abrupt end to the innings as Dawlatzai mopped the tail, while Burger remained stranded at the other end on 44.
