Canadian captain Ashish Bagai steered Canada to a seven wicket victory against Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday with an innings of 53 not out. Canada limited Afghanistan to 128 for five wickets from 20 overs, then began quite well with an opening stand of 30, followed by a key partnership between Ruvindu Gunasekera (39) and Bagai that took Canada to 97 for two wickets.
A solid base from which a few more runs from Bagai, Jimmy Hansra and Raza-ur Rehman sealed a morale boosting win against the much fancied Afghans with three balls to spare. Hamza Hotek took two wickets in the Canadian innings.
Canada’s bowlers seem to have done a good job in the early going, gaining the upper hand after the dismissal of opening bat Mohammed Shahzad for 14 with 27 on the board at the 4.4 over mark. Spinner Junaid Siddiqui bowled four overs for just 11 runs, bowling Merwais Ashraf for 8 to leave Afghanistan on 52 for two wickets after 9.3 overs.  Raza-ur Rehman followed by having two batsman caught to leave the Afghans on 54 for four in the next over. Samilulla Shenwari (22) and new batsman Najibullah Zadrin (48*) pulled the innings around with a stand of 70 for the fifth wicket. Shenwari fell to Osinde’s bowling just before the innings closed on 128 for five wickets. Rehman’s ended with two wickets for 26 runs from four overs.
This win should provide a boost for morale in the Canadian camp, and underlines skipper Bagai’s belief that Canada should see success in the qualifying tournament when it begins in earnest on Friday. However, focus will be needed on Wednesday when Canada faces ICC Americas rival Bermuda in the last of warm-up game before the results really count.   
In today’s other Twenty20 warm-up games: Ireland beat the Netherlands by seven wickets with two balls to spare; Scotland beat the USA by seven wickets with an over to spare, Nepal beat the UAE by five wickets with three balls to spare (to add some intrigue to the mix), Papua New Guinea beat Uganda by six wickets; Italy beat Bermuda by two runs; Hong Kong romped to a 140 run win against Denmark, and Kenya beat Namibia by 37 runs.
　
Summary Scores – Twenty20 Warm-up games played November 12, 2013
Afghanistan 128/5 wkts (20 ov: Najibullah Zadrin 48*)
Canada 129/3 (19.3: Ashish Bagai 53*, Ruvindu Gunasekera 39)
Result: Canada won by seven wickets.
 
USA 133/7 (20 ov: Steven Taylor 55, Iain Wardlaw 3 wkts/25 runs)
Scotland 134/3 (19 ov: Calum McLeod 46)
Result: Scotland won by seven wickets
Netherlands 139/5 (20 ov: Wesley Barresi 50, Ben Cooper 42)
Ireland 143/4 (19.4 ov: William Porterfield 75*)
Result: Ireland won by six wickets
United Arab Emirates 138/7 (20 ov: Khurram Khan 56)
Nepal 142/5 (19.3 ov: Para Khadka 85*)
Result:  Nepal won by five wickets
 
Uganda 114/5 (20 ov; Almuzahim Saleh 42*, Chris Amini 4/25)
Papua New Guinea 118/4 (18.4 ov: Geraint Jones 38)
Result: Papua New Guinea won by six wickets
Italy 128/6 (20 ov: Carl Sandri 42)
Bermuda 126/7 (20 ov: Dion Stovell 33)
Result: Italy won by two runs.
Hong Kong 200/4 (20 ov: Babar Hayat 69*, Irfan Ahmed 45, Nizakat Khan 40)
Denmark 60 (14.2 ov: Aizaz Khan 3 wks/2 runs)
Result:  Hong Kong won by 140 runs.
Kenya 160/5 (20 ov: Rakep Patel 52, Thomas Odoyo 42*, Steve Tikolo 31)
Namibia 123 (18.3 ov: Sarel Burger 30)
Result: Kenya won by 37 runs.
 
Eddie Norfolk, sourced from the ICC website

Scorecard