World Cup Qualifiers: Hong Kong hand Afghanistan third loss

Afghan skipper Rashid Khan

Afghanistan crashed to their third straight World Cup qualifying defeat at the hands of Hong Kong yesterday, while captain Jason Holder led the West Indies to victory over Papua New Guinea. After losses to Scotland and Zimbabwe, new Test side Afghanistan's hopes were hanging by a thread, but they collapsed to 195-9 in pursuit of 242 to beat Hong Kong, with rain ensuring a 30-run defeat on D/L method. Victory for Hong Kong in either of their two remaining Group B matches against Scotland and Nepal would see Rashid Khan's much-fancied Afghan outfit fail to even reach the Super Six stage.

Scotland became the first team to book their spot in the next round after beating Nepal by four wickets to make it three wins from three. An excellent unbeaten 99 from Holder led the Windies to a six-wicket win against Papua New Guinea, after they slipped to 58-4 while chasing 201 for a second consecutive victory.

Catch up on all the latest sports news and updates here

Download the new mid-day Android and iOS apps to get updates on all the latest and trending stories on the go

This story has been sourced from a third party syndicated feed, agencies. Mid-day accepts no responsibility or liability for its dependability, trustworthiness, reliability and data of the text. Mid-day management/mid-day.com reserves the sole right to alter, delete or remove (without notice) the content in its absolute discretion for any reason whatsoever