Gulbadin Naib in action for Afghanistan during T20 World Cup 2024© AFP
Afghanistan scripted history by beating Bangladesh to reach the T20 World Cup 2024 semi-finals on Tuesday. The Rashid Khan-led side emerged victorious in a thrilling encounter and this was the first time ever that they ever reached the semi-finals of an International Cricket Council (ICC) competition. However, the victory was not without its fair share of controversies as Gulbadin Naib was accused of ‘faking an injury’. During the 12th over of the Bangladesh innings, Naib fell to the ground holding his hamstring right after head coach Jonathan Trott was seen signaling to the players to slow the game down. Afghanistan were 2 runs ahead on DLS method with the game hanging by a thread.
Naib’s injury resulted in physios entering the field for treatment and the match had to be stopped at that point due to rain. However, when the teams returned after a short break, Naib seemed completely fit and both fans and experts accused him of ‘cheating’ in order to hand his team the advantage.
Naib’s teammate Naveen-ul-Haq took to social media to post a scene from the film ‘Welcome’ that somewhat indicated that his injury was indeed not real. A number of Afghanistan players commented on it with Naib also posting – “Hey mate I am felling not well….Hamstring problem”.
Afghanistan defeated Najmul Shanto’s Bangladesh by 8 runs using the DLS system, eliminating one of the favourites, Australia, from the race for the semi-final.
After impressive triumphs over T20I cricket giants such as New Zealand and Australia during the same T20 World Cup run, Rashid’s Afghanistan made it to the last four.
Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto revealed that they planned to chase down Afghanistan’s paltry score of 116 but admitted that they lost hope of reaching the semi-final after losing a cluster of wickets in the middle phase in their Super 8 clash of the ongoing T20 World Cup.
(With ANI inputs)
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