Image Credit- ICC
Afghanistan’s semi-final T20 World Cup qualification, according to Rashid Khan, is a “unbelievable feeling” and will serve as a “massive inspiration” for young people back home.
“I think the semi-final is going to be a massive, massive inspiration for the youngsters back home in Afghanistan,” Rashid said after Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in St Vincent to secure their place in the final four and knock Australia out. “That Afghanistan team got into the semis for the first time. We have done it at Under-19 level, but this level we haven’t done that. Even Super Eight was first time for us and then in semis. It’s unbelievable feeling … We are capable – but as long we keep things very simple, and I think in the whole competition so far, we kept the thing simple. Yes, there were some tough times but we didn’t let ourselves down and we always try to come back stronger.”
After Afghanistan reached 115 for 5, Rashid and Naveen-ul-Haq took four wickets apiece to enable Bangladesh be dismissed for 105, eight wickets short of their goal of 114 in 19 overs adjusted for DLS.
“It’s something like a dream for us as a team to be in the semi-final,” Rashid said after the match. “It’s all about the way we had started the tournament. The belief came when we beat New Zealand. So it’s unbelievable. I don’t have any words to describe my feelings. Definitely back home everyone is so, so happy for this.
“I think the only guy who had us in the semi-final was Brian Lara. At the welcome party, I told him, ‘We won’t let you down. We will prove that you are right.'”
Rashid also praised his fast bowlers, Fazalhaq Farooqi, who is presently dominating the tournament in wicket-taking, and Naveen, who was named Player of the Match. Together, they reduced Bangladesh to 23 for 3 in three overs on Monday.
Conversely, Naveen described it as “a surreal experience”. In addition to taking two wickets early on, he started the celebrations by dismissing Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman off consecutive balls, separated by a rain break.
“I think these are the games where you never know what can happen,” he said. “After conceding one boundary, it felt like the game was gone. Suddenly you picked up a wicket and you were back in the game. So the margin of error is very small. But yeah, we had confidence that these wickets are not high-scoring wickets. As long as we didn’t give away easy runs or bowled easy balls, and picked up wickets, we were in the game. Luckily, that happened.”