Australia’s Mitchell Marsh Praises Afghanistan After T20 World Cup Loss

Kingstown [St Vincent], June 23: After a 21-run loss to Afghanistan in the Super Eights of the T20 World Cup 2024, Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh praised their opponents, acknowledging they deserved the win. Marsh had a modest performance, scoring 12 runs from nine balls before being dismissed by Naveen-ul-Haq.

At the post-match press conference, Marsh said, “Afghanistan were really good and they outplayed us and they deserved to win that game. There’s a lot of things you can look at, the reality is there’s small margins here. When the scores are low, we had an off-one in the field. But yeah, got to give credit where credit is due and Afghanistan was pretty good.”

Marsh remains confident in his team, stating, “First things first, recover. We have a lot of belief in our group. We are a very good cricket team. Yes, tonight we had an off night but I guess there’s also a positive in the fact that in 36 hours we go again. It’s a big game, it will be against India obviously and it’s a must-win game. I think if you look back at the short history of this team, I know for a fact that it brings out the best in our guys, so the boys will certainly be up and about for it.”

In the match, Australia won the toss and chose to bowl. Afghanistan’s Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60 runs) and Ibrahim Zadran (51 runs) led their team to 148/6. Pat Cummins and Adam Zampa were notable bowlers for Australia, each taking multiple wickets.

During Australia’s run chase, Glenn Maxwell stood out with 59 runs, but the team ultimately collapsed at 127. Gulbadin Naib’s four-wicket haul was instrumental in Afghanistan’s victory.