Afghanistan Beats Australia in Super-8 Match Of T20 WC
- By Thetripurapost Sports Desk, Kingstown
- Jun 23, 2024
- 259
Afghanistan has made the battle of Group A in the Super-8 of T20 World Cup 2024 exciting by defeating Australia. It has all-outed Australia.
Chasing the target of 149 runs given by Afghanistan, the Australian team collapsed for just 127 runs. In this way, Afghanistan has registered its first victory in the Super-8. Afghanistan won this match by 21 runs.
Afghanistan's victory over Australia is the result of its team effort. Afghanistan wrote the script of its victory by performing brilliantly in all three departments - batting, bowling and fielding.
This is the first victory of the Afghan team over Australia in ICC tournaments. With this victory, it has kept its hopes alive in the tournament. After this defeat, it will now be a do or die situation for Australia to compete with Team India.
Afghanistan batted first in the match and scored 148 runs for 6 wickets in 20 overs. Afghanistan's opening pair of Gurbaz and Zadran added 118 runs in 15.5 overs.
With 9 wickets left in hand, it seemed that Afghanistan would score a huge total. But, after the first wicket, the momentum shifted towards the Australian bowlers.
Pat Cummins from Australia also did wonders by taking a hat-trick in this match. He became the first bowler to take back to back hat-tricks in T20 cricket against Afghanistan and in the T20 World Cup.
Cummins was the most successful bowler for Australia, taking 3 wickets for 28 runs in 4 overs. Apart from him, Jampa got 2 wickets.
Now Australia had a target of 149 runs, which did not seem very difficult considering their batting strength. But then, Afghanistan's team is also known for its bowling. Afghanistan's bowlers presented a good challenge to the Australian batsmen, which they could not overcome and remained 21 runs short of the target.
Glenn Maxwell scored the highest 59 runs from Australia's side. Apart from him, no other batsman scored even 15 runs.
Gulbadin Naib and Naveen-ul-Haq were the two most successful bowlers of Afghanistan, who together took 7 wickets of Australia. Gulbadin took 4 wickets for 20 runs in 4 overs, while Naveen also gave 20 runs in 4 overs and took 3 wickets. Apart from these, Rashid, Omarzai and Nabi got 1 wicket each.
This was the third match between Afghanistan and Australia in ICC tournaments. Earlier in the T20 World Cup 2022, Australia defeated Afghanistan by 4 wickets in Adelaide. When the two teams clashed at the Wankhede ground in the 2023 ODI World Cup, Australia defeated Afghanistan by 3 wickets. But, history did not repeat itself on the soil of West Indies but it was reversed.
Afghanistan has made the record 1-2 by defeating Australia in the third encounter