Gulbadin Naib's remarkable spell paved the way for Afghanistan’s historic 21-run victory over Australia in the T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 match in St Vincent on Sunday (June 23).
Chasing 149 to win, Australia lost early wickets before Glenn Maxwell came to the rescue and dominated the Afghan bowlers. It looked like Maxwell (59 off 41 balls) would take the game away from Afghanistan just like he did in last year’s ODI World Cup, but Gulbadin had different ideas.
The all-rounder was brought into the attack after the halfway mark when Maxwell and Stoinis were trying to steer the Australian ship. He struck in the first over to remove Stoinis. In the next over, he trapped Tim David in front of the wicket. In his third over, an excellent catch by Noor Ahmad sent Maxwell back.
Gulbadin finished his spell with four scalps (4/20 in 4 overs) after he knocked over Pat Cummins, who became the first bowler to register consecutive hattricks in T20Is earlier in the match.
Naib was ably supported by Naveen-ul-Haq (3/20 in 4 over), who set the tone by dismissing Travis Head and Mitchell Marsh in the powerplay.
The likes of Mohammad Nabi, Rashid Khan and Azmatullah Omarzai also returned with one scalp each as Afghanistan bundled out Australia for 127 in 19.2 overs.
Earlier, Afghanistan posted 148/8 on the board thanks to half-centuries from the two openers - Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60 off 49) and Ibrahim Zadran (51 off 48).
As Afghanistan registered their first-ever win over Australia in international cricket, cricket fraternity was full of praise for Rashid Khan and his men.
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