Afghanistan have used every trick up their sleeve to survive an almighty scare – including a bizarre injury – to eliminate Australia from the T20 World Cup with a tense win over Bangladesh.
After Australia failed to take down India overnight, all eyes turned to Bangladesh to see if they could defeat Afghanistan by a small enough margin to keep Australia alive.
Afghanistan crawled to 5-115 off their 20 overs, and Bangladesh looked well set to keep Australia alive, reaching 5-77 after 10 overs with rain threatening and Bangladesh ahead of the Duckworth-Lewis calculations.
However, two wickets in two balls from star skipper Rashid Khan pulled Afghanistan back ahead on the par-score tally, and with rain falling, coach Jonathon Trott urged his side to slow the game down.
Suddenly, Gulbadin Naib went down with a cramp at slip as the rain began to pour, despite the protests of Khan, who urged his teammate to get up.
However, he stayed down long enough for the covers to come on as he was helped off the field.
At the time Afghanistan were two runs ahead on the calculations and an end to the game would have seen them through.
But in another twist, the strong winds at the ground pushed the shower on quickly and play was allowed to resume with Bangladesh’s hopes, and Australia’s, resting on Litton Das as the last recognised batter who was not out on 37.
Despite having to be helped off the field by teammates Gulbadin made a remarkable recovery to return to the field after the short delay and just two overs later was fit enough to bowl to take the wicket of Tanzim Hasan Sakib.
As the game went down to the wire with Bangladesh needing 10 off 10 the rain started to fall again with Gulbadin and the Afghanistan bench pleading with the umpires to go off.
In the end, Das did not have enough support from his teammates as Afghanistan held on to win by 8 runs after Naveen Ul-Haq took two wickets in two balls to leave him stranded on 54 and seal an incredible win.
But Australia missed the chance to keep fate in their own hands after falling to a second loss in as many days after a brutal Rohit Sharma smashed 92 from 41 balls to help India to 5-205 in St Lucia before Travis Head’s 76 could only get Australia to 7-181 in reply.
The results mean Afghanistan will face South Africa in one semifinal, with India to take on England in the other.
Having gone unbeaten until their match against Afghanistan, Australia’s tournament unravelled in the space of 48 overs on the back of poor selection and even worse fielding.
Australia came into the match against India with the worst fielding efficiency of any team in the World Cup, having dropped 14 catches, and the return of Mitchell Starc saw 20 runs off his first over.
“C’mon Bangladesh,” captain Mitch Marsh quipped after Australia’s earlier loss.
“It’s disappointing. We’re still technically a chance of going through to the semis but today India got the better of us,” Marsh said post-game in St Lucia.
“I thought it was a good game and unfortunately we’re on the bad side of it. Over the course of 40 overs, there are a lot of fine margins you could look at but ultimately India were the better team.”