Afghanistan wins Intercontinental Cup

Hassan claimed a match haul of eight wickets, including three in the second innings when Scotland were bowled out for 82 to leave Afghanistan needing 124 to win the title with two days to spare.

"I kept wicket a lot to Wasim and Waqar, who are both mentally and physically very strong and they used to bowl spells of 18 and 20 overs on the trot and to see Hamid come in and bowl 22 odd overs on the trot I think is amazing," said Afghanistan coach Rashid Latif.

"I didn't think anybody could bowl 22 overs in a row, but Hamid did and it was simply great stuff." Hassan refused to get carried away by the plaudits. "I don't know where I get the stamina to bowl 22 overs, I think I was just so desperate to make sure we won the final that I lost count of how many overs I had bowled," he told www.cricinfo.com.

"It wasn't easy bowling as I've got a bit of a heel injury but all that mattered was that we won the final today. Credit should go to Scotland, they played well."

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 Richie Berrington was caught out for 10 by Asghar Stanikzai off 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 in the fifth over off the bowling of Matthew Parker, but the Asian side were soon coasting to victory.

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