T20 World Cup: Rashid, Naveen help Afghanistan seal semis berth
Afghanistan beat Bangladesh at the Arnos Vale Ground in Kingstown to reach their first-ever ICC T20 World Cup semi-final. The Afghans successfully defended 115 after bowling out Bangladesh for 105. Rashid Khan and Naveen-ul-Haq played a crucial role in this historic win as they shared eight wickets. While Rashid also delivered with the bat, Naveen was adjudged the Player of the Match.
Here's how the match panned out
Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran added 59 runs after Afghanistan elected to bat. They scored just eight runs and lost Zadran in Overs 10-13. The Bangladesh bowlers choked Afghanistan, who were down to 93/5. Rashid (19*) drove them to 115/5. Bangladesh succumbed to Fazalhaq Farooqi and Naveen initially. Although Litton Das held his fort, Rashid and Naveen helped Afghanistan bowl out Bangladesh.
Naveen's final spell seals an uncanny win
Fazalhaq Farooqi gave Afghanistan the first breakthrough in the form of Tanzid Hasan. Neveen then dismissed Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib Al Hasan on back-to-back balls. The right-arm pacer came back to dismiss Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman. While Litton remained unbeaten, Rahman's dismissal sealed an uncanny win for Afghanistan. Naveen scalped four wickets for 26 runs in 3.5 overs.
Rashid bags four wickets
Rashid didn't let Bangladesh settle after Naveen got rid of Shanto and Shakib in quick succession. Rashid then removed Soumya Sarkar, which brought Bangladesh down to 48/4. The leg-spinner dismissed Towhid Hridoy in his second consecutive over. In the 11th over, Rashid dismissed Mahmudullah and Rishad Hossain on successive balls. The star wrist-spinner bagged figures worth 4/23 in four overs.
Most four-fers in T20I cricket
Rashid now has the most four-wicket hauls in Men's T20I cricket. Taking his ninth such haul, the wrist-spinner broke a tie with Bangladesh's Shakib (eight). Uganda's Henry Ssenyondo follows Shakib with seven four-fers in T20Is.
Rashid's late flourish helped Afghanistan
As mentioned, Rashid also delivered with the bat for Afghanistan. They were down to 93/5 in 17.4 overs as Rashid arrived. The star all-rounder smacked 3 sixes to get Afghanistan past 110. He smashed a 10-ball 19*.
A look at notable numbers
As per Cricbuzz, this was only the fourth instance of two bowlers taking four-wicket hauls in a T20 World Cup innings. Naveen has taken eight wickets in just 46 balls against left-handed batters in the ongoing T20 World Cup. Rashid has now raced to 37 wickets at 14.67 in the tournament. Naveen owns 21 scalps at 14.33 in this regard.
