On Tuesday, Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by 8 runs (DRS) to earn their first ever T20 World Cup semi-final place in the final Super 8 clash held during the ongoing tournament.
Afghanistan Captain Rashid Khan said West Indies batting legend Brian Lara had predicted a month before the T20 World Cup that Afghanistan would be in the semifinals and now that it has happened, he expressed immense pride in being able to prove him right.
I said we will not let you down when we met him at a welcome party,” Rashid told PTI at the post-match presentation. “The only person who actually took us to the semis is Brian Lara and we proved him correct.”
Rashid attributed their qualification for the knockout stages to victory against New Zealand at group stage. “It’s a dream for us to be in the semifinals. The way we started this tournament, it was when we beat New Zealand, it came as belief. It’s unbelievable,” he recounted.
Afghanistan also defeated Australia for their first-ever win over them before making it past Bangladesh in their last super eight encounter, setting up a semi-final clash with South Africa on June 27th.
Following this achievement, Rashid expected massive celebrations back home.
He continued: “At U19 level, yes but I don’t have words for how people are feeling back home about this world cup. We’ve got to go into these semis with a very clear mind and make sure that we enjoy ourselves.”
The Afghanistan skipper felt his team was 15 runs short at break time.
“We thought that 130-135 runs was going to be good score but fell short by 15 runs. We knew they would come hard at us because that is something they could take advantage of. All we needed was just clarity on what we wanted ourselves do nothing extra,” added Rashid Khan
During any campaign period Farooqi and Naveen have impressed with the new ball in hand, according to Rashid Khan.
“Having a good start in T20s helps us through the middle overs. They started well for us throughout the competition. That is one of the things that make it easier for us to go harder at the batsmen,” said Rashid as he finished his speech. “They delivered, they were very clear in their minds.”
Though there were numerous rain interruptions making them shorten the match eventually, Rashid stated that his team was mentally ready to take all 10 wickets. “Rain is something not in our hands but mentally we knew we have to play 20 overs and take 10 wickets. That’s only way we could win But Gulbadin had some cramps But his wicket was invaluable for us.” He added.
