Kingstown (St Vincent), June 25: Afghanistan beat Bangladesh to enter the semifinals of the ICC T20 World Cup semifinals. They also avenged their ODI world Cup 2023 loss to the Australians by ensuring their exit from the tourney.
But the Afghan-Bangla match was filled with lot of rain breaks, drama, excitement and even delaying tactics.
After Afghanistan's thrilling win over Bangladesh in the last Super Eight encounter, former New Zealand cricketer Ian Smith sarcastically called Gulbadin Naib the "8th wonder of the world" for his on-field drama.
Following the victory, questions are being raised about Gulbadin Naib’s cramp which occurred in the 12th over. The Bangladeshi side had just fallen two runs behind the DLS and rain had started to slowly fall down onto the field. Afghanistan’s head coach Jonathan Trott was seen signalling the players to slow down the game.
Almost instantly Naib grabbed his hamstring and fell to the ground in pain in the 12th over. The delay was caused in the match as Naib limped off the field and the game ultimately had to be stopped due to rain.
However, the incident did not have much impact as only one over has been reduced from the game with a revised target of 114. Naib then came back onto the field in the very next over after the resumption of the match and took the wicket of Tanzim Hasan.
"I've a dodgy knee for the last 6 months, I am gonna see Gulbadin Naib's doctor straight after the game. He's the 8th wonder of the world right now," said Smith during the commentary.
Former English cricketer Michael Vaughan saw the funny side to the incident and pointed out the obviousness of the incident. "Spirit of cricket is alive and kicking … Great to see Gulbadin become the first cricketer in the history of the game to get a wicket 25 minutes after being shot," he wrote on X.
Reactions flooded social media on the incident. Australia’s star spinner Adam Zampa put a story on Instagram and wrote "the old rainstring", implying it was the rain which caused the hamstring issue.
These antics might be a one-off event in cricket but football fans have grown accustomed to players faking injuries in order to waste time.
Ravichandran Ashwin noticed the similarity between the two sports and wrote on X, "Red card for Gulbadin Naib". To which Naib cheekily responded, "Kabhi khushi kabi gham main hota hai Hamstring".
Afghanistan will take on South Africa in the first semi-final while India will face England in the second semi-final of the T20 World Cup. Both games will be played on Thursday, June 27 (IST).
The Afghans will play their first even Worl Cup semi-final, while the South Africans would be eager to break their World Cup jinx. The winner of that battle wil also play their first World Cup final. (With IANS support)
