Yes, Afghanistan did face a crushing nine-wicket defeat against South Africa on Thursday. Yes, Afghanistan did succumb to the lowest-ever total in T20 World Cup semis history. Yes, Afghanistan did not play well. But the writing is clear on the wall for the Afghan Lions — they’ll be a force to reckon with in the near future.
Bowling Was Always a Hit, Batting Came Good in T20 World Cup
Afghanistan’s spinners, including Rashid Khan, Noor Ahmad, Mujeeb ur Rahman, and others, have always been world-class. In this T20 World Cup, their pacers shone too. Naveen ul Haq was excellent with 13 wickets in eight matches, while Fazalhaq Farooqi is currently tournament’s highest wicket-taker with 17 scalps. So exceptional there as well. But it was batting, that did wonders for Afghanistan.
Take this. Rahmanullah Gurbaz is tournament’s highest run-getter. He amassed 281 runs in eight matches at an average of 35, and a strike-rate of 124. Then Ibrahim Zadran comes in close, at third, with 231 runs. He got those runs at an average of 28.87, and a strike rate of 107. Azmatullah Omarzai also was good with 111 runs. So batting clicked.
Beating Australia Helped
World Cup 2023 loss against Australia hurt the Afghanis. They had Aussies down, but Glenn Maxwell’s 200 thwarted their dreams. But this time it was a different story. After scoring, they restricted the opposition to only 127, that gave them a win by 21 runs. So, that just shows, they’re not hung up in the past, and can beat any team in the world. Essentially, have shed their minnows tag.
Rashid Khan’s Post-Match Interview Smile
Normally, after being thrashed, that too in a World Cup semis, a team and a skipper should be distraught. But Rashid Khan smile just gave a feeling, as to how confident he is, of this team’s ability. After the match he said, “It was tough, tough for us as a team. We might have done better but the conditions didn’t allow us to do what we wanted. That’s how T20 cricket is, you need to be ready for all conditions.
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“I think they bowled really well. I think we got good success in this tournament because the seamers bowled really well, you need good starts. I think we were unlucky with Mujeeb’s injury, but our seamers and even Nabi bowled brilliantly with the new ball. That made our job easier as spinners. We have enjoyed this tournament.
“We will accept playing a semi-final and losing to a top side like Africa. It is just the beginning for us, we have the confidence and belief to beat any side. We just need to keep our processes. This has been a great learning experience for us. What we take from the competition is the belief. We know we have the skills, it is just about managing tough situations, pressure situations. Some work to be done, specially in the middle order to take the innings deep. As I said, it is always learning for our team and we have achieved good results so far but we will come back doing more hard work, specially in the batting department.”
Mind you, all this with a smile. So the world needs to watch out.
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