Afghanistan’s incredible Semi Final breakthrough

Afghanistan made a brilliant comeback in a thrilling encounter against Bangladesh and registered themselves for the first time in an ICC tournament Semi Finals. They won the match by 8 runs. 

Afghanistan scored 115/5 in 20 overs. But due to rain the overs got reduced to 19 and the target was set 114. Bangladesh in reply scored 105/10 in 17.5 overs. With this win Australia is now out of the race for the Semis.     

In their previous encounter, Afghan players shocked the Aussies and got their first ever victory against them while Bengal Tigers was thrashed by the Indian team in their last match. 

Rashid Khan after winning the toss elected to bowl first. 

A slow start was given by the Afghan openers as they put 59 runs in 10.4 overs. Rahmanullah Gurbaz though scored the most runs for the team as he scored 43 runs but took 55 balls to reach there. He hit 3 fours and a six in his innings. 

Ibrahim Zadran scored 18 runs in 29 balls. But it was the skipper Rashid who scored 19 runs in 10 balls and took his team to 100 par score on the board. 

Rishad Hossain shines again with the bowl and took 3 wickets in his 4 overs and conceded only 26 runs. Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman got 1 wicket each. 

In the chase, Bengal Tigers got a destructive start as Liton Das provided some couple of good shots. But they keep losing wickets from the other end. Das stood alone till the end and scored unbeaten 54 runs in 49 balls. He hit 5 fours and a six in his knock. 

He didn’t get any proper support from the end and ultimately the team lost the match in a thriller. 

Rashid in this department also led the team well as he got 4 wickets in his 4 overs and conceded only 23 runs. Naveen-ul-Haq also got 4 wickets and conceded only 26 runs in his 3.5 overs. He was the one who took the last two wickets and gifted his team a great victory. Fazalhaq Faqoori and Gulbadin Naib got 1 wicket each. 

Naveen-ul-Haq, Afghanistan, Player of the Match

Leave a Comment