The suspected hamstring injury sustained by Afghanistan’s all-rounder Gulbadin Naib was one of the several stories that dominated the headlines following their historic T20 World Cup triumph against Bangladesh. In the twelfth over, with Bangladesh leading 81/7, Naib was spotted falling with his hamstring caught in his hands as he fielded at slips. Soon after, rain was forecast, so the covers had to be pulled on. Based on the DLS par score at the moment, Afghanistan was leading the match and advanced to the semifinals.
Shortly after, footage emerged of Bangladesh’s head coach and former England batter Jonathan Trott telling the players to calm down since they were trailing Bangladesh on the DLS par score. Gulbadin collapsed pretty spectacularly, even appearing to react to Trott with one hand before collapsing the second time. The little rain delay proved to be ineffective, as Gulbadin was fully fit to resume play after bowling two overs and picking up a wicket.
When Gulbadin’s spectacular fall was shown on replay, the commentary box burst out laughing, and former New Zealand wicketkeeper Ian Smith mentioned the apparent injury when Naib scooped up the wicket. For the past six months, I’ve had a problematic knee. After the game, I’m going to meet Gulbadin Naib’s physician. At the moment, he is the eighth wonder of the world,” he declared. On X (the old Twitter platform), a former wicketkeeper for Australia responded to Smith’s remark with a laughing emoji.
Afghanistan’s watershed moment
All of it added up to make Afghanistan’s cricketing history as they guaranteed their place in the T20 World Cup semifinals. By achieving this, they defeated Australia, one of the tournament favorites who was attempting to pull off the unusual triple crown of winning the World Test Championship, ODI World Cup, and T20I World Cup all at once.
When Afghanistan defeated Australia in their last Super Eight match, Naib was one of the players of the game and helped them advance to the semifinals. At Arnos Vale, Afghanistan’s first-inning total when batting first was merely 148/6. Then, with statistics of 4/20, Naib was his team’s best wicket-taker as Australia was bowled out for 127 and Afghanistan triumphed by 21 runs. Australia was on the verge of elimination after they lost to India by 24 runs in their last Super Eight match, requiring Bangladesh to defeat Afghanistan later in the day.
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