On Tuesday (IST), the Arnos Vale Ground in St Vincent and the streets of Afghanistan celebrated as the Afghans made a historic entry into the T20 World Cup semifinals with a thrilling win over Bangladesh, who incidentally knocked Australia out of the tournament.
Bangladesh were chasing their own below-par 115 for 5, before they themselves got into trouble in rainy Kingstown after multiple rain interruptions that saw them slip while trying to reach 114 within 14 overs.
Historical moment occurred when there was enough room for a result to be reached after all by the clouds.
The tears flowed from both Afghan players on and off the ground as soon as Naveen-ul-Haq took his final wicket against Bangladesh. And similar scenes could be seen in many parts of stadiums as shown by Star sports footage celebrating immediately after games.
Afghanistan had been waiting for this day which witnessed similar scenes in Afghanistan where fans thronged streets to celebrate their team’s famous victory.
Afghanistan chose to bat first having made it clear that another loss would see them exit from the tournament but they amassed another run-a-ball score despite being well placed with wickets on hand thanks to some outstanding bowling from Rishad Hossain who ended up with 3 wickets conceding only 26 runs.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz, who is known for his aggressive batting at top order, didn’t seem to have any confidence this time following his slowest fifty at international level which came off fifty-five balls. Only an unbeaten knock of nineteen by skipper Rashid Khan helped them go past 110 even though they had already lost five batsmen. The best bowler out of all was Leg-spinner Rishad Hossain who managed to pick up three wickets giving away just 26 runs.
On behalf of the team, Litton Das played a lone hand (he hit 54 off 49 balls). On the other side, all wickets were taken by Afghanistan with Rashid Khan taking 4/23 and Naveen-ul-Haq bowling equally well for returning figures of 4/26.
South Africa will take on Afghanistan in the first semi-final while England will face India.
