Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won a crucial toss and promptly elected to bat against five-time champions Australia, who were seeking a win to book their place in the semifinals. However, sixth-placed Afghanistan, who have beaten the current world champions England and two former champions Pakistan and Sir Lanka, were also chasing a spot in the last four stage and were not willing to give it away on a platter. Mitch Marsh and Glenn Maxwell returned to the squad and with Steve Smith sitting out this game owing to a serious bout of vertigo, all-rounder Marcus Stoinis retained his spot from the previous game, while Cameron Green missed out. Afghanistan has made one change with pacer Naveen ul Haq coming in as a like-for-like replacement for Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Image Credit: AFP
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Afghanistan openers continued to give their team a solid start. Ibrahim Zadran continued to hold one end up after losing his partner Rahmanullah Gurbaz and went on to score his maiden World Cup century. The opener later attributed his success to legendary Indian batter Sachin Tendulkar, who shared his experience and that motivated him to perform.
Image Credit: ANI
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Despite getting a good start, Afghanistan were losing wickets at regular intervals. Rahmat Shah, skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai were all guilty of not converting their starts into big scores, leaving Zadran with a bigger task. Josh Hazlewood (pictured) was the main wicket-taker with two wickets, while Mitchell Starc, Maxwell and Adam Zampa claimed a wicket each.
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At a time when Afghanistan were looking at finishing with an under-par score, Rashid Khan and Zadran joined hands to put an unbroken 58-run partnership for the sixth wicket in 27 balls, that seemed to have tilted the balance in Afghanistan’s favour. Zadran finished with 129 not out as Afghanistan finished at 291 for five in 50 overs.
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Afghanistan pacer Naveen ul Haq dismissed Travis Head off the second ball to push Australia on the backfoot straight away. Chasing a big target required a good start, but without it the five-time champions were facing a difficult task. In-form opener David Warner and Mitchell Marsh tried to put Afghanistan under pressure with some attacking strokes. But Naveen struck again to dismiss Marsh to wrest back the initiative for Afghanistan.
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Azmatullah Omar struck decisive blows when he dismissed the dangerous Warner and Josh Inglis off successive balls to reduce Australia to 49 for four in the ninth over. With the writing on the wall, Glenn Maxwell and Marnus Labuschagne tried to stitch together a partnership.
Image Credit: ANI
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An untimely run out of Labuschagne in a mix-up broke the brewing partnership. Then ace Afghanistan spinner Rashid Khan got into the act, dismissing Marcus Stoinis and Mitchell Starc to put Australia in deep trouble. Replays suggested that Starc had not nicked the ball and the Australian pacer didn’t take a review. That brought skipper Pat Cummins to the crease and a start of a stunning match-winning partnership.
Image Credit: Reuters
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Maxwell got three reprieves, an easy catch dropped by Mujeeb ur Rahman, a top-edge landing in no man’s land while a leg-before decision overturned by the third umpire as the ball was missing the stumps. Emboldened by the reprieve, Maxwell went on an all-out counter-attack and was unstoppable at one point of time, hitting boundaries and sixes at will. Despite a cramp hampering his footwork, Maxwell just stood and hit Afghan bowlers to all parts of the park. Cummins proved an able foil to stay till the end as Australia reached the target with 3.1 overs to spare and booked a place in the semifinals. Maxwell remained unbeaten on 201, highest score by an Australian in the World Cup.
Image Credit: Reuters
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