Kingstown (St. Vincent): Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan took their 2023 ODI World Cup exit revenge on Australia as they scripted history, securing their maiden victory over the 2021 champions by 21 runs in the Super Eight clash of the T20 World Cup 2024 at Arnos Vale Ground here on Sunday.
Afghanistan have successfully defended a total which wasn't going to be very easy for Australia and this time around, the former side has emerged triumphant against 2021 World Champions and took the revenge of the 2023 ODI World Cup exit from the same team.
Given the nature of the nature of the turf, Rashid's decision to start with both the pacers worked in their favour as Naveen-ul-Haq knocked over in-form Travis Head the first over instead of Fazalhaq Farooqi was spot on as Naveen cleaned up Travis Head and from there on, the Afghans were able to attack. He then removed opposition captain Mitchell Marsh in the next over and then former skipper Mohammad Nabi got rid of David Warner in the next over.
They had Kangaroos reeling at 32/3 before things started to fall apart and the spinners didn't do much damage in the middle phase, rather they had no impact despite the conditions being much in their favour. However, bringing in a right-arm medium pacer into the attack in the middle, proved a masterstroke from the Afghan captain.
He bowled a sensational spell from Gulbadin Naib in the second half of the innings that really turned the tide. He picked up four wickets to get into the tail-enders including Australia's highest run-getter of the season -- Marcus Stoinis, Tim David, top scorer for Australia in the game Glenn Maxwell and hat-trick man Pat Cummins. Naveen came back in to pick up three wickets in total to ensure the game wouldn't slip away from their hands. Azmatullah Omarzai rounded off a fine display as he got the final wicket and Afghanistan bundled out Australia and picked up their first-ever win against them in T20Is.
