Afghanistan is no more a minion in T20 cricket. They have hitters, they have bowlers specially the class spinner Rashid Khan.
Last time the two teams played in 50 over WC, the fights broke between fans of two countries. How would they behave this time? Well its UAE so very less chances of fights but surely can be tense, despite the new “brotherhood” govt.
Love the flags planted during the net practice. Lets go Pakistan
Pakistan got lucky that afghanistan threw their wickets in the begining. But a huge come back. They have got a good score. Lets see how they bowl now. It doesnt look like an easy win for Pakistan at half way
It was great game, Afghanistan played really well. Afghani batsmen didn’t “throw” their wickets, their approach is for sixes, like Shahid Afridi, so sometimes they’ll score big and some times they will lose their wicket cheaply. You could otherwise say the same about Rizwan and Babar that they threw their wickets, Babar more-so as they had already scored lots of runs in that over and it last ball he could’ve just nudged or blocked but he chose to “smash” it without reading the ball.
T20 is boom boom cricket unlike a test match. It was taylor made for Afridi who didn't have the concentration to patiently bat in 50 over matches.
Indians were saying that Pakistan because Afghanistan put them to bat second where dew makes it hard for the bowlers. It worked for them against Scotland when they posted a respectable total but they just fell short of scoring 200 since Pakistan is no Scotland when it comes to bowling and has be recharged since the Indian and New Zealand wins.
I do have to say that Afghanistan has come along nicely unlike Bangladesh who are pretty much out of the tournament now. Afghanistan learned it in Pakistani refugee camps and did get initial help from PCB which they like to totally avoid in favor of Indian help in recent years due to their enmity with Pakistan. Still, Bangladesh started officially in the nineties and it isn't like they didn't have access to the same resources like Afghanistan. In fact, Bangladesh had it better since they are able to play in their own grounds and have hosted the Big 3.
A very entertaining game in the end courtesy of Asif Ali. Honestly i was never much in favor of him but he proved himself as a pinch hitter, exactly whats expected in T20. Damn those 4 sixes. Move over Carlos Braithwaite, there is new hitter in town.
For Afghanistan i think there are lessons to be learnt but they are a good T20 team. Question is, how far will they go in this group? Can they make semis by defeating NZ and India, or atleast one of them?
Asif ali hasnt been tested by real quick pacers . I believe aussies will mix bowling with bouncers , yorkers and good length. Though he hit cleanly to medium pacers whihc is great but also luckily the bowlers didnt mixed up with short balls to him. balls were mostly in the groove. But Also hopefully he will not be underpressure always to hit sizes all the time.
He should get balls not only yo hit sixes all the time. Else he will be out of team soon.
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There are serious efforts underway to rollback the status of Afghan cricket team and I do not want that. First by using ICC and then by offering asylum to top performers in the team so their team would collapse on it's own.
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Who else thinks that Afghanistan lost against India by purpose? There should be investigation of match fixing. They deliberately lost it badly and got india a good run rate.
I didn’t watched the match, but I think Indian players had no pressure in this game as they know they cannot go to semi-final, except if they rename the Delhi airport to “semi-final”.
