Boualem Khoukhi's early strike and an eighth goal of the tournament from striker Almoez Ali gave Qatar a 2-0 halftime lead with Hassan Al-Haydos and Hamid Ismail completing the rout in the last 10 minutes.
Afghanistan's former coach Lalchand Rajput believes that they can "upset some of the top teams" in mega tournament, primarily banking on their spinners.
For Kohli, in probably his last three matches as T20 captain of India, one would expect some prudent team selections and it starts with the question of repeatedly ignoring a player of Ashwin's calibre.
After resuming on 70 for 1, India A added 229 runs at the expense of seven wickets as the visitors were placed at 299 for 8 at stumps on Day 2 at the Sir Vivian Richards Stadium. India A had bowled out the home side for 228 on the first day.
A couple of losses for hosts England has only brightened the 1992 winners' prospects of a semi-final berth.
Ten sailors released from an Iranian jail reached their native places in Gujarat and have been reunited with their family members.
Eager to keep their semi-final hopes alive, a desperate Bangladesh will have their work cut out when they take on a spirited Afghanistan in a do-or-die World Cup encounter in Southampton on Monday. England's defeat at the hands of Sri Lanka on Friday breathed air into Bangladesh's hopes of securing a semi-final berth and the 'Tigers' will be keen on making the most of the situation starting with a win over the bottom-placed Afghanistan.
Afghanistan has shown great promise in taking its game to the next level, as its journey from the lower divisions to competing on cricket's biggest stages testifies. Since the ICC World Cup 2015, Afghanistan has won 25 of 44 games across formats. That includes 11 Twenty20 Internationals wins in 13 matches. Those statistics, and the fact that it has never lost a T20I to Scotland, will give Afghanistan a mental boost when the two sides lock horns in Tuesday's (March 8)second Group B match at the Vidarbha Cricket Association Stadium in Nagpur. Afghanistan certainly has all the ingredients to beat Scotland and this contest should be a keenly fought one.
Rajneesh Gupta profiles the cricketers playing the World Cup 2019.
Afghanistan's controversial campaign, marred by poor on and off-field decisions, has gone from bad to worse. They now face the onerous task of squaring off against a galaxy of world class players, whose performance graph is on the upswing.
The International Cricket Council released the provisional squads of the 12 teams for next year's World Cup in Australia and New Zealand on Friday. However, co-hosts Australia and minnows Ireland decided against releasing the provisional list although they submitted 30 names to the parent body within the stipulated deadline.
The 2015 ICC World Cup has thrown up a lot of exciting moments since it began last week on February 14. Rediff.com gives you a quick flashback of all the action-packed, intense moments that had us watch in awe.
Rajneesh Gupta presents all the fascinating career numbers of players in the World Cup.
Lost in transition, defending champions Sri Lanka will look to come out of the rut and start well against a spirited Afghanistan in their World Twenty20 Super 10 opener at Eden Gardens on Thursday. The defending champions, who were also runners-up in 2009 and 2012, have managed to win only four of their 14 matches since they beat India to win the 2014 edition in Mirpur. They are in the middle of a transition phase after Kumar Sangakkara and Mahela Jayawardene's exit. The build-up to the tournament was also forgettable with series defeats in New Zealand and India followed by an early ouster in Asia Cup. To add to the misery, their 2014 WT20 winning skipper Lasith Malinga has stepped down as leader of the team, following concern over his slow recovery from a knee injury. Now Test and ODI skipper Angelo Mathews' task is cutout. Having joined the squad on Tuesday, Malinga is a doubtful starter for the match. His presence in the team would impact the team a lot.
Hosts India would look to do an encore by putting England through another rigorous spin test when the two teams square off in the third Test starting in Mohali, on Saturday.
Decorated with a Vir Chakra for leading an attack that destroyed four tanks, Risaldar Ayub Khan shared a name with the Pakistani president who ordered the invasion of India in 1965. India's Ayub came from a family of soldiers and made his country proud.
As the top 10 teams prepare to battle for the World T20 crown, Rajneesh Gupta breaks down each squad's T20 performance and their showing in previous editions of the event.
After four centuries on the trot with a strike rate of nearly 120, Sri Lanka's run machine Kumar Sangakkara (MVPI: 686) has raced to the top of the most valuable player standing at the ICC World Cup.
The West Indian has blasted his way to the top of Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup with the South African skipper close on his heels.
Srinivas Bhogle and Purnendu Maji figure out who are the most valuable players after the league phase of the World Cup intheir latest update.
It looks highly unlikely if anyone will catch the South African captain in Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup.
A B de Villiers still heads Rediff.com's Most Valuable Players ratings for the World Cup.
Strangely, despite four wins on the trot, none of India's players have even figured in the top 20 of the MVPI table.
'We don't know what the reasons were that we gave back the Haji Pir Pass which was strategically very important. Today the entire infiltration into Kashmir takes place from that area. If we had retained that post that we had captured, things could have been different.' 'A lesson we need to learn is if you start losing the gains of war at the negotiating table, they become a disincentive for future wars,' says Lieutenant General D B Shekatkar (retd), reviewing the lessons from the 1965 War.
