Afghanistan win the Intercontinental Cup

Dubai:

Afghanistan won the ICC Intercontinental Cup here on Saturday by defeating holders Scotland in the final.

The Scots were bowled out for 82 on the third day of the match and Afghanistan comfortably reached their target of 124 with seven wickets to spare.

Scotland had gone into the second innings with a 41-run advantage but only two players scored more than 10 runs and three were out for ducks to leave Afghanistan to ease to victory in the 27th over.

The result meant that the Scots had failed to emulate their success in the inaugural 2004 tournament.

Starting the day at 64 for six, they had been hoping for some fight from their tail, but it was not to be as first innings hero Richie Berrington was caught out for 10 by Asghar Stanikzai off Hamid Hassan.

Mirwais Ashraf soon finished them off by taking the wickets of George Drummond, Majid Haq and Ross Lyons for a combined total of seven runs, with Simon Smith the last man standing on 10.

Afghanistan lost opener Karim Sadiq for seven runs in the fifth over off the bowling of Matthew Parker, but the Asian side were soon coasting to victory.

The other opening batsman, Shabir Noori, hit 35, and Parker's fifth wicket of the match, an lbw to end captain Nawroz Mangal's stand at 17, came too late to give Scotland even a fighting chance.

The tournament's top run scorer, Mohammad Shahzad, struck an unbeaten 56 off 62 balls to help ease the Afghans home with a second-innings total of 124 for three.