Afghanistan’s national futsal team lost 2-1 against the host team, Thailand, in their last match in the continental five-a-side tournament match on Friday.

The country’s futsal national team won the bronze medal by winning 2 out of 4 games played in the continental tournament.

This was the fourth and the last match for Afghanistan in the tournament.

In the tournament’s first game, Afghanistan beat Guatemala 5-4.

In the third match, Afghanistan thrashed New Zealand 5-1.

The tournament was hosted by Thailand, involving teams from Afghanistan, Guatemala, New Zealand, and Kuwait.

With just over a week to go before the FIFA Futsal World Cup 2024, these matches are seen as crucial for the team, as they view them as important warm-up sessions ahead of the Uzbekistan World Cup.

For fans across Afghanistan, Ariana Television will again make sure you don’t miss out on the thrill of matches – which will get underway on Saturday 14 September.

Afghanistan will play their first match on Sunday 15 September when they come up against Angola.

The New Zealand cricket team arrived in Delhi on Thursday ahead of the one-off Test against Afghanistan and a three-match Test series against India. 

New Zealand Test skipper Tim Southee, star batter Kane Williamson, vice-captain Tom Latham, and other members of the squad were spotted at Delhi Airport on Thursday morning.

The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) confirmed in a post on X on Thursday that the New Zealand national team had arrived in India for the one-off Test match against Afghanistan’s national team. 

ACB said the single Test will start on Monday at 9 am Kabul time.

In August, the ACB named a 20-member preliminary squad for the Test. 

Officials from the selection committee said that the final squad will be announced at the end of the preparation camp, which started at the beginning of this month in India. 

Ahmad Shah Sulimankhel, the Chief Selector said last month that “20 players have been selected for the training camp and a 15-member squad will be selected to play the only Test match against New Zealand after observing their performance and fitness.”

The preliminary squad includes the following players:

Hashmatullah Shahidi (captain), Ibrahim Zadran, Riaz Hassan, Abdul Malik, Rahmat Shah, Baheer Shah Mahboob, Ikram Alikhel (wk), Shahidullah Kamal, Gulbadin Naib, Afsar Zazai (wk), Azmatullah Omarzai, Ziaurrahman Akbar, Shamsurrahman, Qais Ahmad, Zahir Khan, Nijat Masoud, Farid Ahmad Malik, Naveed Zadran, Khalil Ahmad and Yama Arab.

ACB Chairman Mirwais Ashraf said at the time: “I am happy to see some youngsters in the squad who performed well in domestic cricket and have gotten the opportunity to be part of the test squad for this test match.” 

He further added that ACB “is delighted to be embarking on its maiden bilateral event with New Zealand which is a quality side in test cricket and looks forward to a competitive event between black caps and Afghan Atalan.”