Afghanistan’s Historic Win Over Australia in T20 World Cup

Rashid Khan and Team Shine

Melbourne [Australia], June 23: Australian batter Usman Khawaja congratulated Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan and the team for their historic win over Australia in their ICC T20 World Cup Super Eights clash at Kingstown on Sunday.

Australia were left surprised by an amazing performance from Afghanistan bowlers led by Gulbadin Naib and Naveen-ul-Haq, which secured a 21-run win for the Asian side at Arnos Vale Ground.

Following the win, Khawaja took to X to congratulate Rashid, saying, “Well done Brother. Better team on the day. You boys are an inspiration for so many back home and abroad. So sad we can’t see you all play in Australia.”

In the match, Australia won the toss and chose to bowl first. An impressive 118-run partnership between Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60 runs) and Ibrahim Zadran (51 runs) gave Afghanistan a strong start. Despite tight bowling from Australia, including a hat trick by Pat Cummins (3/28) and a good spell from Adam Zampa (2/28), Afghanistan scored 148/6 in 20 overs.

During Australia’s run-chase, they were reduced to 32/3 due to a fine spell by Naveen-ul-Haq (3/20). Glenn Maxwell (59 runs) tried to hold the innings together, but Gulbadin Naib (4/20) took crucial wickets, leading to Australia being all out for 127 runs in 19.2 overs. This marked Australia’s first-ever loss to Afghanistan in international cricket.

Naib was awarded ‘Player of the Match’ for his match-winning spell. With this win, Afghanistan is third in Group 1, while Australia is second, both with two points each. If India wins their final Super Eights game against Australia and Afghanistan beats Bangladesh by a big margin, Australia could be out of the T20 World Cup.