Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif was all praise for Afghanistan after their memorable victory over Australia in Kingstown, St. Vincent. Fighting to stay alive in the competition, Afghanistan showed tremendous courage and determination to overcome an in-form Australian team.
Afghanistan’s victory has opened Group 1. This means Australia needs to beat India in their final Super 8 clash in Saint Lucia. Meanwhile, if India beats Australia and Afghanistan wins against Bangladesh, Afghanistan will qualify for the semi-finals.
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Mohammad Kaif praises Afghanistan after big win over Australia
Mohammad Kaif praised the performance of the Afghanistan team through his X account (formerly Twitter). Kaif mentioned last time that Afghanistan failed to close out the ODI World Cup 2023 match at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. The former India batsman claimed that Afghanistan’s brilliant performance on the field made the difference this time.
“This victory is marked in history. Afghanistan have defeated Australia for the first time in their history. Last time it was very close at Wankhede as well, but some catches by (Glenn) Maxwell were missed and he made a double century and Afghanistan lost “Kaif said in a video posted on X.
Kaif also praised Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who formed an opening partnership of 118 on a tough pitch. He also mentioned Rashid Khan’s brilliant captaincy, which involved handing over the top spot to Naveen-ul-Haq instead of the in-form Fazalhaq Farooqi.
“The brilliant captaincy, the brilliant opening partnership by bringing in Zadran (Ibrahim) instead of Zazai (Hazratullah), they did not repeat the mistakes they made against India. Zadran and Gurbaz (Rahmanullah) put up a century-opening stand on a difficult pitch where the ball moved a lot, the ball grabbed, it turned, there they made 148 runs on the board,” Kaif mentioned.
“Brilliant captaincy, the first over was given to Naveen-ul-Haq and not Fazalhaq Farooqi because I knew that Naveen would dismiss Travis Head like last time at Wankhede and he did it the same way by cleaning up Head with a ball that changed “Then Mohammad Nabi fired David Warner,” he added.
Afghanistan are truly among the greats of world cricket: first they beat New Zealand and now Australia. #AusvAfg #T20WorldCup pic.twitter.com/czDoxZvGI2
—Mohammad Kaif (@MohammadKaif) June 23, 2024
Afghanistan surprises Australia and opens Group 1
After being put in to bat first on a difficult pitch where the ball stopped and turned, Rahamanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran found it extremely difficult to get going. But the duo stayed on the wicket and ran very hard between the wickets to advance the scorecard.
Both openers were dismissed in quick succession, but they had laid a solid platform for the middle-order batsmen. But unfortunately, Afghanistan’s middle order couldn’t fire and they were restricted to 148-6 in 20 overs. Pat Cummins scored his second hat-trick in consecutive games.
Chasing a modest target to win, Australia ran into trouble when Travis Head was dismissed in the first over himself. Australia were restricted to 32-3 when Marcus Stoinis joined Glenn Maxwell in the box. Stoinis was dismissed by Gulbadin Naib, leading to a spectacular collapse.
Maxwell was dismissed for a well-played 41-ball 59 and Matthew Wade followed soon after. Afghanistan didn’t screw it up this time like they did in Mumbai and bowled out Australia for 127.
