 "Afghanistan reach T20 World Cup semi-final for first time in history, Australia knocked out")
Afghanistan stormed into the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-finals on Tuesday with a victory over Bangladesh in their final Super 8 match at the Arnos Vale Ground, Kingstown in St Vincent. Afghanistan’s victory also means Australia are knocked out of the T20 World Cup 2024.
T20 World Cup 2024: News | Schedule | Results | Points Table
Afghanistan will play South Africa in the first semi-finals on 27 June while India will face England in the second match.
In the 52nd match of the tournament, Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by eight runs to move to four points with their second win in the Super 8 stage. They qualified to the semi-finals as the second-placed side from Group 1 of Super 8 while India finished first with six points and three wins from three matches.
Read: Who will India face in the T20 World Cup semi-final and when?
Australia were knocked out after securing just two points and one win while Bangladesh were the last team in Group 1 after failing to win a single match.
What happened in the match?
After Afghanistan posted 115/5 in bowling-friendly conditions, captain Rashid Khan (4/23) and Naveen-ul-Haq (4/26) starred with the ball as Bangladesh were bowled out for 105 , chasing the revised target of 114 in 19 overs.
Opener Litton Das smashed 54 not out off 49 balls to keep Bangladesh and Australia’s hopes alive for a while and threatened to spoil Afghanistan’s party, but pacer Naveen turned the match with the last two wickets off consecutive deliveries. As he dismissed, Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman, a grand Afghan celebration began on the pitch.
“We have worked so hard over the past few years and we were dreaming of this day. It’s a surreal experience,” Player of the Match Naveen said. “We always knew they were going to be coming hard at us to try to get the target in 12.1 overs but we stuck to the task and kept getting wickets.”
Impact Shorts
More ShortsEarlier, leg-spinner Rishad Hossain took three wickets for 26 to put Bangladesh in the driver’s seat.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (43 off 55 balls) was Afghanistan’s best batter and put up 59 off 10.4 overs Ibrahim Zadran before Bangladesh made a comeback with Zadran’s wickets.
Bangladesh took only four more wickets but the run rate never peaked.
Skipper Rashid’s quick-fire 19 off 10 balls in the end rescued Afghanistan as they scored a total that proved to be a winning one at the end.
Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto laid the blame for the defeat on their batters.
“I think through the whole tournament we’ve been bowling pretty well,” said Shanto after the defeat. “As a batting group though we have a lot of improvement to make. We didn’t make good decisions and going forward we need to think about our batting.”
Rashid was delighted after the semi-final progress and explained the team’s fairytale journey in the tournament.
“The belief came when we beat New Zealand (at the group stage),” said Rashid. “We thought 130-135 would be a good total on this wicket, but still, we knew if we stuck to our plans we would have a good chance to defend the total. We just gave 100 percent effort, to make the country and the people back home proud of us.”
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