Afghanistan cricket team who remains unbeaten in the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2024 so far faced struggling Papua New Guinea to play the 29th match of the tournament in Trinidad.
A victory in today’s game will seal Afghanistan’s spot in Super 8 moreover they could move to the top spot with their higher run rate.
In this edition of the T20 World Cup, Afghanistan played a never-seen-before innings. Afghans won their first two matches by defending after being forced to bat first.
Afghanistan executed an all-rounding performance this season. Afghans top order batters roar with the bat while their key bowlers including Fazalhaq Farooqi, Naveen-ul-Haq and Rashid Khan strangle the opponents with their bowling skills.
Their recent victim – New Zealand faced the same sort of experience. Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran scored with bat while Farooqi and Rashid each bagged four wickets each and clinched an 84-run victory.
Speaking of the AFG vs PNG clash, Afghanistan won the toss and opted to bowl first. PNG’s Tony Ura and Assad Vala opened the inning and failed to lay a strong foundation for the team.
Assad Vala lost his wicket in an unpleasant run-out dismissal in the second over while in the next over, Fazalhaq Farooqi bagged back-to-back wickets by dismissing Lega Siaka(0) and Sese Bau(0).
𝐁𝐎𝐖𝐋𝐄𝐃! A first-ball wicket Naveen-ul-Haq and Afghanistan are 🔝
Will 🇦🇫 restrict PNG under 100 to qualify for the Super 8? #AFGvPNG | LIVE NOW | #T20WorldCupOnStar pic.twitter.com/t82H0H9q8a
— Star Sports (@StarSportsIndia) June 14, 2024
Before recovering from the shock, Naveen-ul-Haq dismissed Hiri Hiri(1) in the fourth over and loaded pressure on the PNG batters.
PNG lost four wickets for just 17 and were in need of building a partnership which could save them from registering a low score.
PNG opening batter Tony Ura and Chad Soper made a 13-run stand (which is the highest partnership so far in this game) but before making progress Naveen-ul-Haq struck back and dismissed Ura for 11 runs.
Afghanistan with their impressive bowling spell bagged seven wickets for 50 runs in 12.1 overs. Kiplin Doriga and Alei Nao for the eighth wicket made a partnership of 38 runs.
The threatening partnership was broken by Noor Ahmad in the 18th over while in the very next over, Fazalhaq Farooqi in his final over dismissed Alei Nao(13) and finished the inning with a figure of 4-0-16-3. Papua New Guinea lost all their 10 wickets for 95 runs with a ball left to bowl.
