ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 St.Vincent witnessed one of the best low-scoring thriller matches of this World Cup, it tested the patience of every fan who was present over there, Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by 8 runs (DLS). A historic day for Afghanistan as they qualified for the semi-final for the first time and it’s great to see the growth of cricket in Afghanistan.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz- A lone warrior
Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bat first but the pitch was very difficult to bat on still Afghanistan decided to bat first as they started the innings and thought that they might find themselves in trouble as the score was quite low and they scored just 27 runs in powerplay still they didn’t lose any wicket but dot balls were the most. Despite dot balls, Rahmanlluah Gurbaz scored 43 runs which was the highest rest no other batter could contribute well except skipper Rashid Khan his finishing touches helped Afghanistan to register 115 on board. Rashid and Co knew that they just needed to defend the target and qualify for semis.
Good bowling by Bangladesh
Bangladesh had a great time with the bowling all bowlers were in good form and so they were able to restrict Afghani batters to score boundaries, dot balls were bowled most almost 60-64 dot balls bowled by Bangladesh bowlers. young sensation Rishad Hossain once again impressed with his bowling he picked 3 wickets and kept Bangladesh in the driving seat.
Litton Das’s fifty went in vain
So, now it’s time for the batters to show their muscles with the bat, but Afghanistan had the potential to defend the target and so they adhered to their words. Bangladesh lost their 3 wickets quite early but they got a steady start, later rain spoiled the madness, and the game was stopped after sometime game resumed and so the luck for Afghanistan too resumed, from the other end wickets were falling at regular intervals but Litton Das stood from one end but he was the helpless situation for Bangladesh was quite tough and the result was impossible to predict, still, Litton Das scored a half-century but Afghanistan took away the match when rain spoiled the game yet another time and this time over were reduced to 19 and the target was set to 114. Naveen took two quick wickets and took Afghanistan to the semi-final of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024.
Naveen and Rashid- Saviors of Afghanistan
Afghanistan had just 116 runs onboard but still, they showed their courage, passion, hunger everything to win this match. Every bowler sweated till the end to make the team into the semis. Rashid Khan and Naveen-Ul-Haq wrote the winning script for Afghanistan and despite rain twice still they held their nerves and kept bowling till the end, they refused to surrender so they remained positive and won the match. Rashid and Naveen took 4 wickets each which was the highlight and Naveen finished the match with two consecutive wickets and that was the winning moment. Naveen-Ul-Haq was adjourned as Man Of the Match. Afghanistan will remember this World Cup for a long time and everyone will truly appreciate their hunger, passion and never to surrender kind of nature. Now they will play against South Africa in Semi-final 1 in Trinidad on June 27.
