New Delhi: Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan has backed his teammate Gulbadin Naib who came under scrutiny during the Afghanistan vs Bangladesh T20 World Cup 2024 Super 8 fixture that was held at the Arnos Vale Ground in St. Lucia on Monday. As Afghanistan registered a momentous win to cruise to their first-ever T20 World Cup semifinal, social media was harsh at Naib for apparently “faking” an injury during the match.
In a match that was halted due to rain in regular intervals, right before one such pause during the final moments of the game, Naib was down on the ground holding his leg while standing in the slip. The incident occurred just before a delivery was about to be bowled after head coach Jonathan Trott signalled his players to ‘slow it down’.
At that particular point, Bangladesh were just behind the DLS score with rain pouring down and it was quite possible that Bangladesh would have taken the upper hand had that delivery been bowled before the players rushed into the pavilion. However, Rashid downplayed the incident at the post-match press conference saying that it didn’t make a difference to the end result.
“Well, he had some cramp, I don’t know what happened to him and I don’t know what’s going on in social media but that doesn’t matter. It’s just an on-field injury which happens, the rain came and we just went off, it’s not something [that] brought a massive difference in the game. We came back on field after five minutes and there was no massive difference. For me, it’s just like a small injury happens, then you have to take some time,” Rashid said.
AFG beat BAN by eight runs
Gulbadin’s tactic copped heavy flak on social media with several claiming that the all-rounder has given an Oscar-worthy performance. Fans claimed that it was a pure act to slow the game down and have the rain result in their favour. The small rain pauses however let the shortened game reach a completion as play resumed and Afghanistan managed to close the game under normal circumstances. On the back of Rashid and Naveen-ul-Haq’s four-fers, Bangladesh were bowled out at 105 in 17.5 overs while chasing a below-par 114 runs (DLS target).
Afghanistan will be up against South Africa in the first semi-final scheduled at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Wednesday.
Gulbadin Naib laid on the field holding his leg apparently at a time when Bangladesh were just behind the DLS score with rain pouring down after a signal from head coach Jonathan Trott to “slow the game down.” Cricket Sports News: Latest Cricket News, Cricket Live Score, Sports Breaking News from Sports Today
