Thunderous celebrations rang in after Afghanistan’s historic victory against Australia in T20 World Cup 2024 match on Saturday.
It was Afghanistan first-ever victory against Australia in international cricket.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran shared an opening stand of 118 before Gulbadin Naib took over to drive Afghanistan to a 21-run win over Australia in St Vincent and keep alive their hopes of reaching the Twenty20 World Cup semi-finals.
Naib claimed 4-20 and Naveen-ul-Haq bagged 3-20, but it was the third century partnership of the tournament from Gurbaz and Zadran that laid the foundation for a win that also kept Bangladesh alive.
Afghanistan players and support staff were ecstatic after the final wicket of Australia fell in 20th over of the game.
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They celebrated jubilantly with each other on the field and in the dressing room.
Afghan skipper Rashid Khan said they were confident of defending anything over 130, adding the importance of having many allrounders in the team.
Read more: Afghanistan stuns Australia to keep World Cup semis hopes alive
“The thought was although we didn’t finish as well as we would have liked to, but this is how this wicket is,” Rashid said at the presentation. “The more important thing was that the opening partnership gave us the best start. That let us get to a total we had in mind. We all watched two games before, and on this wicket anything 130-plus we said we were capable of defending. We keep calm and have that belief.
“The beauty of this team is having too many allrounders gives you options. As a captain, it makes it easy.”
Beating Australia is a “great feeling” and will make Afghanistan fans “proud”, Rashid said.
“It’s a massive win for us as a team and as a nation,” he said. “In the World Cup, beating champions is a great feeling. It’s something we missed in last two years – in 2023 World Cup and also in 2022 in Australia where we lacked some runs.
