A tremendous spell of bowling from allrounder Gulbadin Naib (four for 20) inspired Afghanistan to their most famous victory on the international circuit as they got a critical 21-run triumph over Australia at the Arnos Vale Stadium in St Vincent and the Grenadines on June 22 to keep their semifinal hopes alive in the 2024 International Cricket Council Twenty/20 World Cup.
Heading into the Group I Super Eight clash, the significance of the match was straightforward for both teams. A victory would have seen Australia advancing to the semis alongside the unbeaten India. On the flip side, a defeat would have seen Afghanistan's campaign coming to an end after a promising start which saw them winning three consecutive group C matches.
With coach Jonathon Trott at the helm and bowling consultant and former West Indies star Dwayne Bravo orchestrating from behind the boundary rope, the Afghans dug deep and put in a performance which would have put the demons from their 2023 50-over World Cup clash with the Aussies to rest.
On that fateful day at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai on November 7, the Afghans had the Australian team dead in the water at 91 for seven as they chased a total of 292. The Ausssies were rescued by allrounder Glenn Maxwell, though, who made a stupendous unbeaten knock of 201 not out to give his team a three-wicket win with 19 balls to spare.
Australia went on to beat India in the final to lift their sixth ODI World Cup crown.
On a tricky surface at Arnos Vale, the Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan team got their revenge.
The Afghans got to a competitive score of 148 for six – thanks largely to the brilliance of the opening pair of Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60 off 49 balls) and Ibrahim Zadran 51 (51 off 48 balls). After being sent in by the Aussies, the opening pair navigated a difficult early phase which saw the ball seaming around and bouncing unpredictably on the surface.
Both Gurbaz and Zadran settled in nicely and they took the score to 64 without loss at the halfway stage, before going on to put on their third 100-run stand in the tourney. In their team's first two matches of the tourney, Gurbaz and Zadran put on 154 and 103 respectively as Afghanistan posted solid totals before dismantling both Uganda and New Zealand with the ball.
Afghanistan didn't have the strongest finish with the bat against Australia as they scored just 39 runs in the last five overs – losing six wickets in the process. Pat Cummins (three for 28) also did the unthinkable by grabbing a hat-trick in successive matches, but his time in the spotlight was fleeting.
There was a buzz and belief about the Afghan team in the field, and they stifled the Aussie lineup – bar Maxwell – to bowl them out for 127 and get their first-ever win against the Australian juggernauts.
In their first three games, Fazalhaq Farooqi emerged as the star for Afghanistan – taking 12 scalps to jump to the top of the tournament's wicket-taking charts. With his steady medium-fast bowling, Naib was the man who proved to be the architect of the Aussie