Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan cricket team picked up a historic 21-run win against Mitchell Marsh's Australia during match 48 of the ongoing edition of the T20 World Cup 2024 which was being played at the Arnos Vale Ground in St Vincent, on June 23 (Sunday). Naveen-ul-Haq played a prominent role in this massive victory along with Gulbadin Naib. He gave Afghan Lion crucial early breakthroughs and put the Aussies under pressure. He grabbed 3 wickets in his four-over spell and gave away only 20 runs. He even bowled 12 dot balls. Now, after his team's monumental win, Naveen's old post from the ODI World Cup 2023 is going viral on the internet.
Naveen's viral post resurfaces on internet
Cricket Australia decided not to play a bilateral series against Afghanistan citing that the country does not give equal rights to women cricketers. However, both teams collided against each other in the ODI World Cup 2023. Before the big clash, pacer Naveen-ul-Haq posted a message on his story calling out Australia and asking them if they would still not play with them for two points or still prefer not to play. He wrote, “Refusing to play bilateral series, now it will be interesting to see cricket Australia stand in the world cup #standards #humanrights or 2 points”.
However, Australia managed to beat Afghanistan in the thrilling ODI World Cup 2023 clash with the help of a double-century from Glenn Maxwell. Now, months later Afghanistan managed to avenge their loss by beating Aussie in the Super 8 clash and Naveen's old post once against resurfaced on the internet and went viral.
Afghanistan in contention for semi-final
Afghanistan 148/6 in 20 overs while batting first. This looked like a low score as Afghan openers were able to join a century stand before constant wickets in the death overs restricted them from posting them a big total. However, even this turned out to be too much for Australia as their batting collapsed in front of Afghan bowlers. Maxwell tried to fight back again and scored a valiant half-century but it was just not enough this time.
The Afghan side's qualification to Super 8 itself was being seen as a big upset. However, as they shared the same group with India and Australia, no one counted them in the race for the semi-final. But their win against Aussies has changed the scenario of Group 1. If both India and Afghanistan win their next match, Australia will be out of the T20 World Cup 2024.
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