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Hashmatullah dedicates Afghanistan victory to 'struggling country' / Photo: © AFP
Hashmatullah dedicates Afghanistan victory to 'struggling country'
Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi dedicated his team's victory over the Netherlands to the "people struggling" at home and insisted they are still "dreaming" of reaching the World Cup semi-finals.
Afghanistan swept to a seven-wicket triumph with 111 balls to spare to record a fourth win at the tournament after already shocking defending champions England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka.
With two group games left, they have eight points, the same as Australia and New Zealand although their rivals boast better run rates.
Undefeated India have already made sure of a semi-final spot with South Africa almost certain to join them.
"A message to our country back home. We know that people are struggling, we are with them. I dedicate this win to them," said 28-year-old Hashmatullah.
"We are still dreaming and we are still trying our best to make the semi-final. That would be such a big achievement for our country and for me."
Before this year, Afghanistan had won only one match at World Cups and that was against Scotland on their debut in 2015.
Four years ago, in the United Kingdom, they lost all nine games they played.
On Friday, set 180 to win, Rahmat Shah (52) hit his third successive half-century while Hashmatullah made an undefeated 56, also his third fifty in a row.
Veteran off-spinner Mohammad Nabi was man-of-the-match for his 3-28.
"Mohammad Nabi is a special player. He is so talented and he loves to take responsibility with the ball like he did today," said Hashmatullah.
Next up for Afghanistan on Tuesday is a potential grudge match against five-time champions Australia.
In January, Australia controversially cancelled a series against Afghanistan in protest, they claimed, at the Taliban's treatment of women.
"We have good team unity. We are very united and we are always playing for the team and winning for the team," added Hashmatullah.
The Netherlands, who have stunned South Africa and Bangladesh at the tournament, were undone Friday by four run-outs.
"The run-outs were hard to come back from, we set ourselves up for a good total. They have quality spinners through the middle and we didn't have our top order batters to face them," said skipper Scott Edwards.
"We've done well batting first, defending scores. We thought if we scored 280 we'd be well in the game."
A. Bogdanow--BTZ
