Afghanistan reaching T20 World Cup semi-final is a 'dream come true': Captain Rashid Khan

Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan says his team gave their “100 percent effort” to reach the T20 World Cup semi-finals for the first in their history and “make the country proud”. Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by eight runs (DLS method) on Tuesday to qualify for the T20 World Cup semi-finals . This is the first time Afghanistan have reached the semi-finals of a T20 or ODI World Cup.

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In the last Super 8s match of the tournament, Afghanistan batted first and made 115/5, however, the target was reduced to 114 in 19 overs due to rain. Eventually, Bangladesh were bowled out for 105 in 17.5 overs.

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Rashid, who made a blistering 19 not out off just 10 balls and took four wickets for 23, explained Afghanistan’s unwavering belief in their abilities and the significance of the victory in his post-match comments.

“It’s something like a dream for us as a team to be in the semi-final. 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.”

“It’s a massive celebration back home now. It’s a big achievement for us. We have done that in the Under-19 level, being in the semi-final. But in this World Cup…I don’t have any words how to describe the feeling. The country will be very proud. I am so happy the way we have delivered as a team. We took the responsibility. Being in the semis is big, now we have to go with a clear mind. We’ll have to keep things simple and make sure we enjoy the big occasion.”

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Rashid also spoke about proving cricket legend and expert Brian Lara right by reaching the semi-finals.

“The only guy who put us in the semi-final was Brian Lara and we proved that right. Before the competition at the welcome party, I told him, ‘We won’t let you down. We’ll make it through and prove you’re right.’ I am proud of this team.”

Pacer Naveen-ul-Haq was declared the Player of the Match for taking four wickets for 26. He also took the last two wickets of the match on consecutive deliveries to script the fairytale win for Afghanistan.

Naveen termed the latest achievement as a “surreal experience,” and said that while the match had a lot of twists and turns, the Afghan players always believed they could win the contest.

“We have worked so hard over the past few years and we were dreaming of this day. It’s a surreal experience,” 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.”

“These are the games you never know what can happen, after a boundary, you feel the game is gone, but a wicket brings you back in the game, so the margin for error is very small. These kind of wickets are not high-scoring ones so you are always in the game. We have worked hard for this and we are in the semis, we are very happy.”

Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto blamed the batting for their defeat..

“I think through the whole tournament we’ve been bowling pretty well,” Shanto said. “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.”