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.
\nA 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.
\nCanada\u2019s 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.\u00a0 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\u2019s bowling just before the innings closed on 128 for five wickets. Rehman\u2019s ended with two wickets for 26 runs from four overs.
\nThis win should provide a boost for morale in the Canadian camp, and underlines skipper Bagai\u2019s 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.\u00a0\u00a0\u00a0
\nIn today\u2019s 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.
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\nSummary Scores – Twenty20 Warm-up games played November 12, 2013
\nAfghanistan 128\/5 wkts (20 ov: Najibullah Zadrin 48*)
\nCanada 129\/3 (19.3: Ashish Bagai 53*, Ruvindu Gunasekera 39)
\nResult: Canada won by seven wickets.
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\nUSA 133\/7 (20 ov: Steven Taylor 55, Iain Wardlaw 3 wkts\/25 runs)
\nScotland 134\/3 (19 ov: Calum McLeod 46)
\nResult: Scotland won by seven wickets
\nNetherlands 139\/5 (20 ov: Wesley Barresi 50, Ben Cooper 42)
\nIreland 143\/4 (19.4 ov: William Porterfield 75*)
\nResult: Ireland won by six wickets
\nUnited Arab Emirates 138\/7 (20 ov: Khurram Khan 56)
\nNepal 142\/5 (19.3 ov: Para Khadka 85*)
\nResult:\u00a0 Nepal won by five wickets
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\nUganda 114\/5 (20 ov; Almuzahim Saleh 42*, Chris Amini 4\/25)
\nPapua New Guinea 118\/4 (18.4 ov: Geraint Jones 38)
\nResult: Papua New Guinea won by six wickets
\nItaly 128\/6 (20 ov: Carl Sandri 42)
\nBermuda 126\/7 (20 ov: Dion Stovell 33)
\nResult: Italy won by two runs.
\nHong Kong 200\/4 (20 ov: Babar Hayat 69*, Irfan Ahmed 45, Nizakat Khan 40)
\nDenmark 60 (14.2 ov: Aizaz Khan 3 wks\/2 runs)
\nResult:\u00a0 Hong Kong won by 140 runs.
\nKenya 160\/5 (20 ov: Rakep Patel 52, Thomas Odoyo 42*, Steve Tikolo 31)
\nNamibia 123 (18.3 ov: Sarel Burger 30)
\nResult: Kenya won by 37 runs.
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\nEddie Norfolk, sourced from the ICC website<\/p>\n