The Afghanistan cricket team booked their progression to the semi-finals of the 2024 T20 World Cup, beating Bangladesh in their final Super 8 match of the tournament. Although it was a deserving victory for Afghanistan, many shocking incidents left the social media world perplexed. The most important incident that made headlines was that of the Afghan star Vice GulbadinThe shock injury claim that appeared to have come on the coach’s instructions Jonathan Trott. Seeing the act caught on camera, “accusations of cheating” were even made against Naib, Trott and Afghanistan.
Gulbadin Naib appeared to have ‘faked’ his injury by falling while performing slides while holding his hamstring. The incident even forced the medical team to rush and pull him out. Not only the Bangladesh team but also Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan seemed frustrated with this act.
“The coach sends a message to say slow down, slow down and the first slip falls to the ground unnecessarily. This is unacceptable. It’s gone anyway. I understand it could have gone anyway because of rain,” Simon said. Doull while commentating during the match.
Zimbabwean commentator Pommie Mbangwa also joked: “Oscar, Emmy?”
Here is the video:
This has to be the funniest thing ever. Gulbadin Naib collapses after coach tells him to take things slow. pic.twitter.com/JdHm6MfwUp
– Sports Production (@SportsProd37) June 25, 2024
No words…. @ICC should
take action on this pic.twitter.com/61n3N2SuhG– Hassan Abbasian (@HassanAbbasian) June 25, 2024
Seeing the incident, people like Ravichandran Ashwin, Michael Vaughanetc. took to social media to make jokes.
Batting, running, sliding down the field, celebrating and now taking wickets. https://t.co/AZZyOKe3Px pic.twitter.com/ZfPhdTj86s
-Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) June 25, 2024
Red card for Gulbadin Naib
-Ashwin (@ashwinravi99) June 25, 2024
Great to see Gulbadin become the first cricketer in the history of the game to get a wicket 25 minutes after being felled…
–Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) June 25, 2024
This is unacceptable
It’s cheating from AfghanistanBangladesh scored 81 runs before the rain and they were just 2 runs away from the normal score and Gulbadin Naib did that to avoid Bangladesh’s victory on DLS.
Once a cheater, always a cheater pic.twitter.com/oEnVPlcFCP
-Imran Siddique (@imransiddique89) June 25, 2024
Afghanistan made the entire cricketing world stand up and take notice as they shrugged off the ‘minnow’ label and confirmed their status among the sport’s elite teams.
Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan admitted after the match that it was a dream come true moment for him and the team.
“As a team, it’s like a dream to be in the semi-final. It’s all about how we started the tournament. The belief came when we beat New Zealand. I didn’t no words to describe this feeling The only guy who put us in the semi-final was. Brian Lara and we proved we were right. I told him we wouldn’t let him down. We thought 130-135 was a good total on this wicket. We were 15-20 runs down. It was a question of state of mind. We knew they would come all over us and take a hit in our pockets in 12 overs. This is where we could take advantage, we just had to be clear with our plans. We have made efforts, it is in our hands. Everyone did a wonderful job,” he said.
The Afghans will next face South Africa in the semi-final of the 2024 T20 World Cup.
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