West Indies suffered an embarrassing and humiliating 63-run defeat to minnows Afghanistan, in the opening day / night One-Day International of the three-match series at the Darren Sammy National Stadium in St. Lucia on Friday, June 9.
Asked to chase what should have been a straightforward 213 for victory, the regional side were mesmerized by 18-year-old leg-spinner Rashid Khan, whose career-best seven-wicket haul sent them crashing to 149 all out off 44.4 overs.
At one stage Khan took four wickets for one run as the Windies were struggling to recover from the disastrous start.
Middle-order batsman Shai Hope’s 35 was the best offering for the Windies with tail-ender Alzarri Joseph, batting at number nine, making 27 and opener Evin Lewis 21.
They were only three to pass 20 as their counterparts failed to come to grip with the visitors’ varied spin attack.
Khan finished with 7 for 18 — the fourth-best bowling performance in one-day history- to hand the West Indies their 12th loss in their last 13 One-Day Internationals inside the last 18 months.
For Afghanistan, the victory marked their first over a major Test playing nation and was their seventh win in their last 11 outings.
Captain Jason Holder described the stunning defeat as “poor” performance.
“We have to do better as international cricketers. I think Afghanistan played better cricket and they deserved to win,” he told reporters.
