Australia got a close victory by 4 runs against Afghanistan in the 38th match of the T20 World Cup. Playing first, Australia scored 168/8 in 20 overs, in response, Afghanistan also scored 164/7 playing full overs. Australia’s Glenn Maxwell was adjudged the player of the match for his brilliant batting performance. Despite the win, Australia will have to rely on the Sri Lankan team’s victory in the England vs Sri Lanka match on Saturday to advance to the semi-finals.
After winning the toss, Afghanistan elected to bowl and Australia got the first blow on the score of 22. Cameron Green, playing his first match of the tournament, was dismissed for 3 runs. David Warner played some good shots but was bowled for 25 off 18 balls in an attempt to switch hit. Steve Smith went on after scoring just 4 runs. Mitchell Marsh batted hard and scored 45 runs. His wicket fell on the score of 86. From here, Marcus Stoinis shared a half-century partnership with Glenn Maxwell to take the score to 139. Stoinis was dismissed for 25 but Maxwell held on and remained unbeaten till the end. He scored an unbeaten 54 off 32 balls hitting six fours and two sixes. Afghanistan bowler Naveen-ul-Haq took the maximum 3 wickets.
Read more: 5 balls over? Huge mistake made by umpire in T20 World Cup
Playing counter-innings, Afghanistan’s start was also not very special and Usman Ghani became the victim of Josh Hazlewood in the third over after scoring 2 runs. Rahmanullah Gurbaz played a quick innings of 30 runs in 17 balls. Ibrahim Zadran and Gulbadin Naib put on a half-century partnership for the third wicket to take the score to 99. Naib’s innings of 39 runs in 23 balls was run out. Zadran also went on after scoring 26 runs. Rasooli scored 15 runs. It looked like Afghanistan would easily get out of the match but Rashid Khan batted very well. He tried his best to win his team by scoring an unbeaten 48 off 23 balls but in the end suffered a close defeat. Josh Hazlewood and Adam Zampa took two wickets each for Australia.
