Afghanistan scripted history in a Super Eight clash of the ongoing ICC Men's T20 World Cup at the Arnos Vale Ground in St. Vincent and Grenadines as they registered their first win over Australia in international cricket across formats. The game witnessed a thrilling finish as Afghanistan came back from behind to beat Australia by 21 runs.
Gulbadin Naib was the star of the show for Afghanistan as he brought his side back into the contest with a match-winning four-wicket haul. Gulbadin's spell saw him claim the crucial wickets of Marcus Stoinis and Tim David but his biggest of the evening was Glenn Maxwell's.
Maxwell was threatening to repeat his heroics from the ODI World Cup 2023 when he scored a scintillating double hundred at Wankhede to put an end to Afghanistan's fairytale campaign but Gulbadin got him caught at backward point by Noor Ahmad.
Gulbadin's final wicket turned out to be the hat-trick hero Pat Cummins. The star Afghan allrounder dismissed Cummins on the third delivery of the 17th over to end Australia's hopes of making a comeback into the contest. He outperformed Cummins with the ball in hand and claimed the Player of the Match (POTM) award.
Naveen-ul-Haq was equally brilliant with the ball in hand. The right-arm speedster bagged a three-wicket haul and conceded just 20 runs in his four-over spell.
The foundation of Afghanistan's win was set up beautifully by a 118-run stand between their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran. Both batters registered history by equalling Babar Azam and Mohammad Rizwan's record for the most hundred-plus stand in the ICC Men's T20 World Cup history.
The pair also created the record for registering the most 100-plus stands (3) in a single edition of the ICC Men's T20 World Cup as they shattered the previous record of two century stands between Adam Gilchrist and Matthew Hayden. Hayden and Gilchrist had added two century stands during the inaugural edition of the T20 World Cup in 2007.
Afghanistan were looking on course for a 160-plus total but Australia came back strongly while riding on the second consecutive T20 World Cup hat-trick by Cummins and limited the Rashid Khan-led side to just 148.
