LSG Watch at T20 WC 2024: Naveen ul-Haq’s opening act sets up Afghanistan’s historic win over Australia
Afghanistan notched up their first-ever victory over Australia in international cricket after beating the Baggy Greens by 21 runs in their Super 8 Group 1 match on Sunday. Our very own Naveen ul-Haq played a big part in the historic win with a fantastic spell of 3/20 in his four overs.
Sent in to bat first, Afghanistan rode on a brilliant 118-run opening wicket stand between openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran to post 148/6 in 20 overs.
Afghanistan seemed to be racing towards a huge total with both their openers in full flow before Marcus Stoinis, another proud Super Giant, gave the Aussies the much-needed breakthrough by dismissing Gurbaz in the 16th over.
The wicket paved the way for the Aussie bowlers to restrict Afghanistan under 150 at the Arnos Vale Stadium in Kingstown in St. Vincent. Pat Cummins notched up another hat-trick.
Tasked with restricting the mighty Australian batting line-up, Naveen, like he has done so many times for us, gave his team the perfect start, uprooting Travis Head’s middle stump in the very first over.
Naveen followed up with the big wicket of Mitchell Marsh in his second over. A slower one forced the Aussie captain to mistime his shot straight to Mohammad Nabi in mid-off.
Our ace pacer’s fantastic opening spell gave Afghanistan the window to pull off one of the biggest upsets in T20 World Cup history. Gulbadin Naib followed up Naveen’s opening act with a Player of the Match award-winning 4/20.
Naveen would also come back to scalp the wicket of Ashton Agar later to help Afghanistan wrap up a memorable victory, which also kept their semi-final hopes alive.
Our speed ace has been one of the top performers for Afghanistan with the ball in the T20 World Cup 2024, having picked nine wickets in six matches. He was also our top wicket-taker in the IPL 2024 season with 14 wickets in 10 matches.
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