Fans took to the streets of Khost Province to celebrate Afghanistan’s historic win against Mitchell Marsh’s Australia in the T20 World Cup 2024 on Sunday. In the Super 8 match at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown, St Vincent, the Afghans won by 21 runs to keep alive their hopes of making their way through to the semi-finals of the tournament in the West Indies and the USA.After being asked to bat first, the Afghans put up a decent score of 148 for 6 on the board. Then they bowled their opponents out for 127 in 19.2 overs. Rashid said that Afghanistan had the self-belief to pull off the massive heist.
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The Afghanistan Cricket Board (ACB) took their X handle and shared a few pictures from the people's celebrations in the Khost Province, with a tweet, "Cricket fans converge in large numbers in Khost province to celebrate #AfghanAtalan's historic win over Australia in the #T20WorldCup."Chasing a 149-run target, Australia's batting line-up was rattled by Afghanistan bowlers who did a brilliant job of bundling out the opponent for 127 in 19.2 overs. Gulbadin Naib and Naveen ul Haq were the star performers as they combined picked seven wickets to secure a win for Afghanistan.Naib picked up four wickets while conceding just 20 runs in four overs. While Naveen-ul-Haq registered the figures 3/20 with an economy rate of 5 in four overs. Following a big upset by Afghanistan, skipper Rashid Khan said, “We thought 140 was a good score on this track. We didn't finish well with the bat, but on this pitch, you can always struggle, and we struggled at the end.
However, the start given by them (Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran), it helped us post this total. We knew we were capable of defending as long as we stayed calm,” Afghanistan are having an incredible campaign in the T20 World Cup 2024. They finished second in Group C with three wins against New Zealand, Uganda and Papua New Guinea and a loss against the co-hosts West Indies to qualify for the Super 8, where they have been slotted in Group 1 alongside India, Australia and Bangladesh.
Afghanistan lost their opening Super 8 match against India but managed to bounce back with a historic win against Australia to keep their hopes alive for the semifinal. They are currently at third spot with a win and a defeat and has NRR of -0.650.Afghanistan will look to seal their semifinal berth when they take on Bangladesh in St Vincent's Kingstown on June 24, Monday. However, Rashid Khan will be hoping that India defeat Australia for them to secure top 2 finish in Group 1 of the Super 8 stage.
