5 best knocks by associate country batsmen

#3 Samiullah Shenwari 96 vs Scotland, Dunedin (2015)

Samiullah Shenwari's 96 helped Afghanistan register their maiden World Cup win.

Afghanistan’s rise to the 2015 World Cup was an incredible one. It was just in 2009 that they made their ODI debut and in six years they were playing their first World Cup ahead of teams like Netherlands, Canada, and Kenya – all of whom had been a part of previous World Cups.

After losing their first two games of their campaign, Afghanistan were on the right track against Scotland.

They bowled Scotland out for 210 as the pacers Dawlat Zadran and Shapoor Zadran shared 7 wickets. In response, Javed Ahmadi scored a run-a-ball 51, but Afghanistan kept losing wickets at regular intervals. In fact, from 85/2 in 18 overs, the Mohammed Nabi-led side slipped to 97/7 in the 24th over.

Samiullah Shenwari was the only recognised batsman out in the middle. He slowly started to rebuild as he tried to hog much of the strike.

He bided his time in the middle and tried to put the bad balls away. He knew the target was not a huge one and the asking rate was not going to be much of a problem. Hence, he started off slowly but was looking solid as he brought up his half-century in the 37th over in 113 balls.

Shenwari then tried to up the ante once the required rate went beyond 6 runs per over. He tried to find the fence on a regular basis and he even struck Majid Haq for three sixes in the 47th over.

Unfortunately, he was dismissed in the same over for 96 and missed out on a well-deserved hundred. When he was dismissed, Afghanistan still needed a run-a-ball 19 and it was Dawlat Zadran and Shapoor Zadran who took the Afghans home and it gave them their first-ever World Cup win.

Shenwari was awarded the player of the match for his stupendous innings of 96.