Australia are now faced with a tall order to qualify for the T20 World Cup semi-finals after losing to Afghanistan in their second Super 8s clash on Sunday afternoon (AEST).
It’s the first time Afghanistan have ever beaten Australia in a game of cricket, across all formats.
The Middle Eastern nation ran the Aussies close in Adelaide during the 2022 T20 World Cup, and again in India at the Wankhede during last year’s ODI World Cup, when only a freakish Glenn Maxwell double hundred saved the Aussies.
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But the Afghanis finally broke their Aussie duck at St Vincent on Saturday night local time, strangling Australia to claim a 21-run win.
“You’re witnessing something pretty special,” Ian Smith said on commentary.
Needing 24 from the final over, Australian tailender Adam Zampa could manage only a two off the first ball before being caught at long-on off the next ball as the raging favourites were bowled out for 127 from 19.2 overs.
“They have outplayed Australia — no doubt about it,” Ricky Ponting said.
An uncharacteristically sloppy display in the field allowed Afghanistan’s total blow out to 6-148 on a tricky wicket, a score Smith and Ponting both agreed was above par.
It didn’t bode well for Australia when opener Travis Head was bowled for a duck in response. But he wasn’t alone.
Australia’s hopes once again rested on the shoulders of Maxwell, who was the only Aussie batter to score over 12.
But his 59 from 41 wasn’t enough, as Gulbadin Naib and Naveen-ul-Haq wreaked havoc with seven wickets between them.
Speaking after the match, Aussie skipper Mitch Marsh conceded the match was lost in the field.
“It was an off night for us in the field, and we own that,” Marsh said. “It’s one of the great things about our team — it’s an experienced group.
“We had an off night and we’ll be better next game.”
Marsh said his side left itself too many runs to chase with the poor fielding effort.
“I think they probably got 20 too many and, to be honest, they just played a really good game of cricket,” he said. “I thought we were outplayed tonight.”
Australia are now third in their Super 8s group with one win and one loss, and face a must-win clash with tournament favourites India in the coming days.
After Australia won the toss, Pat Cummins (3-28) put the breaks on Afghanistan (6-148) with his second hat-trick in as many games.
But Afghan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60 off 49) and Ibrahim Zadran (51 off 48) had built a mountain too big to climb with the largest opening partnership ever recorded against Australia in T20s (118 runs).
Afghanistan could smell victory when Maxwell clipped player-of-the-match Gulbadin Naib (4-20) to Noor Ahmad at backward point, consigning Australia to 6-106 in the 15th over.
“It becomes really clear now, we just need to win,” Marsh said ahead of the crunch clash with India.
“There’s no better team to do it against, one of the biggest challenges in world cricket.
“We’ll remain positive, we had an off night tonight, absolute full credit to Afghanistan, I thought they were brilliant. We move on pretty quickly.”
Afghanistan’s historic victory keeps their own hopes of a fairytale semi-final berth alive ahead of their match against Bangladesh.
“It’s a massive win for us as a team and as a nation, in the World Cup, beating champions, it’s a great feeling,” said Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan.
“I’m super proud of the guys.”
Two of Australia’s five dropped catches came in the hunt for a wicket to break the blistering opening stand.
As Gurbaz and Zadran wreaked havoc, Matthew Wade missed an easy opportunity for a stumping and Australia twice leaked fours following misfields from Ashton Agar — who wascalled in for Mitch Starc.
After dropping an earlier chance, Marcus Stoinis (1-19) had a long-overdue breakthrough when Gurbaz picked out David Warner at deep backward square leg.
Australia’s best two front-line bowlers this tournament, Zampa (2-28) and Cummins, ensured Afghanistan’s batting order never clicked back into gear after that.
Cummins became the first player to record hat-tricks in consecutive T20 games when Gulbadin (zero) pulled him to Maxwell at deep midwicket in the final over.
He could’ve had another scalp off the next ball had the usually reliable Warner held onto Nangeyalia Kharote at deep point.
Naveen-ul-Haq (3-20) vindicated Afghanistan’s decision to start with pace, swinging the ball into Head’s middle stump with the third delivery of the innings.
The losses of Head (zero) and Mitch Marsh (12) inside three overs raised the alarm, and Australia were officially in panic mode when Afghanistan injected spin for the first time.
David Warner (three) skied Mohammad Nabi (1-1) to short fine leg on the off-spinner’s first delivery and set the stage for Maxwell to haunt Afghanistan again.
But when the allrounder’s gutsy knock came to an end, Australia were into the bowlers and limping to the finish.