ICC World T20: Afghanistan defeat Australia; keep semi-final hopes alive
The 48th match of the T20 World Cup 2024 was played between Australia and Afghanistan. In this match, Rashid Khan’s team scored a crucial win defeating Australia by 21 runs and also avenged the defeat in the ODI World Cup 2023. With Afghanistan’s victory, the road to semi-final has also heated up. At one time, the match was in Australia’s balance, but Gulbadin Naib single-handedly turned the tables. This bowler started sending Australia’s explosive batsmen back to the pavilion one after the other. Naib played the biggest role in crushing Australia by taking 4 wickets.
Chasing the target of 149 runs given by Afghanistan, victory seemed easy for Australia, but in front of the fiery bowling spell of Gulbadin Naib (4 wickets for 20 runs) and Naveen Ul Haq (3 wickets for 20 runs), Australia succumbed to 127 runs without playing the full overs. At one point, Australia had hopes of winning due to Maxwell’s presence at the crease, but Naib got a big wicket by dismissing him. Maxwell got out after scoring 59 runs. The rest of Australia’s batsmen flopped. Travis Head became Naveen’s victim without opening his account. Warner could score only 3 runs. Captain Marsh returned to the pavilion after scoring 12 runs. Tim David (2 runs) and Marcus Stoinis (11 runs) also got out cheaply. Earlier, Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60) and Ibrahim Zadran (51) shared a 118 run opening stand to set Australia a target of 149 runs. Pat Cummins picked up his second hattrick of the World Cup claiming 3 wickets for 28 runs in his 4 overs.
