Australia beat Afghanistan by 4 runs with a thin line of hope for the semifinals. Afghanistan won the toss and asked Australia to bat first at the Adelaide Oval. Cameron Green, Steve Smith, and Kane Richardson were the new entrants for today’s game.
Australia played without Aaron Finch, and Mathew Wade took over the captaincy for today’s game. Australia needed to improve their Net Run Rate to give England a fight for the semifinal spot. A win by 4 runs did not change the Net Run Rate much, and all Australia can hope for is for Sri Lanka to beat England in tomorrow’s game.
Australia put up a target of 169 for the Afghanistan batsmen to chase. New man Cameron Green was the first one to get out. David Warner and Mitchel Marsh held their innings together and put the pressure back on the Afghani bowlers. Mitchel Marsh missed out on a deserved fifty, but he was one of the key men in today’s innings.
Glenn Maxwell Was the Player of the Match
He got the runs for Australia. Maxwell scored an unbeaten 54 off 32 balls. The ball was coming slow on the bat, and the Aussies really tried to nail some out of the park, but they could not get their timing right. They could have definitely scored more runs today, but Fazal and Naveen bowled brilliantly in the death overs. They troubled the Aussies with their line and length.
Afghanistan also lost an early wicket in the second innings. Usman Ghani lost his wicket to Hazelwood in the 3rd over. And just like Australia, Zardan and Gurbaz took the attack to the bowlers. The game changed when Gulbadin Naib was run out by Glenn Maxwell. He was on song today and had he not gotten out, there was trouble in paradise for Australia.
Rashid Khan has some experience playing in Australia and after today’s innings, the Afghanistan coaching staff should question themselves about his batting position. Rashid brought some extra spice to the match. For a moment Australia was panicking when he was in the middle.
Rashid’s Unbeaten 48 off 23 Almost Won It for Afghanistan
Some help from the other batsmen could have done the job for Afghanistan today. Afghanistan had nothing to lose in today’s match. It has been a disappointing ICC T20 World Cup for them. Unfortunately, two of their games were washed out. In the post-match presentation, Mohammad Nabi mentioned that “when you don’t play for 10 days it breaks your momentum, and you tend to lose the plot.”
Australia Will Watch the England Vs Sri Lanka Game Closely
Their only way to the semifinal is if England loses to Sri Lanka tomorrow. It gets tough when you depend on other teams and if Sri Lanka cannot win then the defending champions will be out of the ICC T20 World Cup semifinals.
