Kathmandu, Jun 23: In a thrilling encounter, Afghanistan defeated Australia by 21 runs in the Super 8 stage of the ongoing T20 World Cup, causing a significant stir in the cricketing world.

Afghanistan’s captain, Rashid Khan, hailed the victory as their most significant to date. Reflecting on the triumph, Rashid stated, “This is a great victory for the team and the country. We have missed such a victory many times in the last two years. We missed out on winning by a few runs in the 2022 and 2023 World Cups.” He expressed pride in his team’s performance during the match.

He noted, “We have performed excellently. We thought 140 would be a good score for this game, but we didn’t finish the innings as we wanted. It’s a wicket where you struggle at times and we struggled at the end.” Despite the challenges, Afghanistan’s openers Rahmatullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran provided a solid start with a 118-run partnership, which played a crucial role in setting a defendable target.

Rashid further commented on their strategy, “This is just the beginning for us, there is a big game ahead. And we fully expect to reach the semi-finals.” He expressed confidence in their ability to defend any score above 130, given their performance against Australia.

Afghanistan’s next match in the Super 8 stage is against Bangladesh on Tuesday morning. A victory in this match would significantly enhance Afghanistan’s chances of advancing to the semi-finals, marking a historic achievement for the team.