Historic Upset as Afghanistan stuns Australia. Earlier, Cummins had achieved the feat of getting a second successive hat-trick, but that was wiped out by the performance of the Afghans.
Afghanistan 148 for 6 beat Australia 127 by 21 runs in which their are following scores:(Gurbaz 60, Ibrahim 51, Cummins 3-28, Zampa 2-28) beat Australia 127 (Maxwell 59, Gulbadin 4-20, Naveen 3-20)
With a semi-final spot on the line, Australia’s top order was wiped out by Afghanistan’s seamers.Maxwell then started treating each and every Afghan bowler by dismantling them with one trick shot after the other to make Afghans feel nostalgic. They got four off Azmatullah Omarzai which made Maxwell so happy.
During his 35-ball sensational knock, he signaled thumbs-up to the Australian dressing room visibly aiming at the spot where the final four would be hit and to knock Afghanistan out once again.
Gulbadin Naib, though, combined with Noor Ahmadto stop Maxwell on 59 off 41 balls and keep Afghanistan alive in this T20 World Cup. After Naib hid one away from Maxwell’s swinging arc, Noor pulled off a spectacular, low catch at backward point.
Maxwell departed in the 15th over thus leaving Australia in a most precarious position of 106 for 6, still needing 43 off the last 32 on a St Vincent surface that provided a lot of assistance to the spinners.
However, these conditions made it possible for Naib to claim the best bowling figures for Aus by taking 4-20 and restricted the opposition to 127 all out. Naib was brought as the eighth bowler, he changed the game removing Maxwell, Marcus Stoinis, Tim David and Pat Cummins and achieved a memorable win for Afghanistan over Australia in any format.
Earlier, Cummins had bagged a hat-trick in consecutive World Cup games, and almost got four in four, but this was indeed Naib and Afghanistan’s day.
THE OPENING PAIR
Gurbaz completed another hundred run partnership with Zadran and is the third such partnership in this tournament by them, which is a record in any T20I series for any side, which took Afghanistan to a respectable score.
Both the openers were set and scored their respective half-century and Australia did not get their first wicket before the sixteenth over. It is a record that has never been achieved before as Australia had to wait such a long time to get a wicket in the T20I format.
Gurbaz and Ibrahim had scored 17 from the first four overs where they had made 21 dots. But in the next two overs they increased the score they made by more than double and ended their power play with the loss of no wickets at 40.
Gurbaz then came down the pitch, freewheeling on this one and slamming Adam Zampa over the bowler’s head for a straight six while Ibrahim made adequate room and clobbered Ashton Agar over cover-point for four. To counter an Afghanistan side with five right-handers in its top seven, Australia had selected the left-arm finger spinner, ahead of Mitchell Starc, for his ability to exploit the pitch but he failed to capture a wicket.
Gurbaz and Ibrahim mostly employed a defensive approach to neutralize the conditions and the Australian bowlers specifically. Ibrahim could have been dismissed on 11 had Zampa troubled him with a tough chance in the outfield which drove it towards the boundary.
Ibrahim got another life on 32 when Stoinis shelled a return catch. Australia again and again were uncharacteristically clumsy in the field and Afghanistan capitalised on the chances given to them.
THE COMEBACK OF AUSTRALIA
Cummins took Australia home and also led Australia’s fight back in the last moments of the match and took two hat tricks in three days. On Saturday in St Vincent he got rid of Rashid Khan, Karim Janat And Naib across the 18th and 20th overs. While performing it against Bangladesh he said he was not even aware that he was on a hat-trick but against Afghanistan he knew this very fact, raising his hands to celebrate before Maxwell caught the cricket ball.
Cummins could well have had four in four had David Warner not dropped Nangeyalia Kharote from the very next ball. Starting at a miserable 0 for 118 in the 16th over, Afghanistan fought their way back to 148 for 6 at the close of the first innings, and the contest was evenly poised.
NAVEEN STRIKES IN POWERPLAY
Afghanistan are accustomed to Fazalhaq Farooqi attacking consistently in the powerplay, but it was Naveen-ul-Haq who got Australia’s top-ranked order out of the park. After taking the first two balls away from Travis Head, Naveen threatened to bring one back into the batter with the angle from around the wicket, but the ball swung and seamed away wickedly to make Head look silly and crash into the middle stump.
His next over was special: Mitchell Marsh caught at mid off fehousing a 108 kph slower ball that Dwayne Bravo, the Afghanistan bowling consultant and Naveen’s team-mate at the Texas Super Kings, would have been proud of.
MAXWELL AGAIN
It was 16 for 2 in the three overs of Australia. Enter Maxwell. He took two fours off Omarzai in the first three balls and thereafter dismissed a newcomer left-arm spinner Kharote from the bowling crease. He first reverse swept Kharote for four past slips and slog swept him authoritatively over mid-wicket for 13 runs. Kharote was dismissed for the ball after having bowled one over.
Maxwell also scored some precious runs off Rashid and kept the asking rate within Australia’s reach. When he got to his half-century with a six off Naib, the specters of Mumbai 2023 could have returned for Afghanistan.
NAIB, THE HERO
Australia were 94 for 5 in 13 overs, and this time they had Maxwell and the finisher Wade at the crease. Naib had dismissed Stoinis and David in his first two overs. He was not even in Afghanistan’s first eleven let alone their Plan A. As the spinners blotted full, especially against Maxwell, Rashid went back to Naib who took two more wickets.
Naib does not bowl at a fast rate, however, he continued to hit the deck and the ball behaved in a different way. When he dismissed Maxwell in the third over, he then stepped up and showed off his muscles and then bellowed so loud that it could have been heard in Kabul. The Afghanistan fans in St Vincent supported their hero, and some even waved the flags.
In the last over, Naib played a trick on Cummins playing a slower cutter and Naveen and Omarzai batted well to ensure victory for Afghanistan.
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