With Afghanistan set to meet New Zealand in the next World Cup match, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi expressed his hunger for more victories in World Cup 2023.
Hashmatullah Shahidi on victory against England in WC
Recently Afghanistan won the match against England by 69 runs on October 15 at Arun Jaitley Stadium. Afghans have played three matches so far in the World Cup and lost two matches.
With their victory against the defending champions, the Afghanistan Skipper Shahidi is happy and said that he is foreseeing victories in the World Cup tournament.
“I’m quite happy, all the teammates are happy. This is the best win for us, the confidence will be there for the next game and I’m very proud. The openers get a lot of credit. They gave us a great start but unfortunately, we lost back-to-back wickets in the middle again, a lot of credit to the openers though, especially Gurbaz.
Ikram was with us for the last 2 years and didn’t get a lot of chances, today I believed in him and gave him a chance and he repaid my faith,” Shahidi said in a post-match presentation.
“Last couple of games we didn’t finish well but the belief is there. This is just the first win, we are looking for more in the tournament. This was just the first one, not the last one,” he added.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan dismissed three wickets each while Mohammad Nabi dismissed two wickets and helped the side to victory. Gurbaz was impressive with bat as he scored 80 runs on 57 deliveries.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman was named as the Player of the Match for displaying his impressive bowling skills in the match. Shahidi praised him for his performance and said, “Mujeeb batted brilliantly, he led from the front and scored important runs for us. We have to score runs, our batting lineup needs to score more for our spinners. We have a lot of confidence in our spinners.
Fazal started very well, the first wicket gave us a lot of momentum. When I was batting, I realized the wicket wasn’t supportive for batters against spinners. I told the boys that 280-290 would be enough when I got back into the dressing room. I want to say that the belief, trust, and talent are there.”
Afghanistan is scheduled to play against New Zealand on October 18 at MA Chidambaram Stadium.
