‘Big boys of world cricket…’: Mohammad Kaif heaps praise on Afghanistan for beating Australia in T20 World Cup – Times of India

NEW DELHI: Praise poured in from all corners of the cricket world as Afghanistan stunned heavyweights Australia in their T20 World Cup clash Kingstown, St Vincent on Sunday.
Chasing 149, Australia were bowled out for 127 runs in 19.2 overs with Gulbadin Naib taking 4/20 and Naveen-ul-Haq chipping in with 3/20.
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Afghanistan kept their semifinals hopes alive with this win.
Former Indian cricketer Mohammad Kaif congratulated the Afghans on their stupendous victory.
Kaif said in a video on his X handle, “This win is marked in history. Afghanistan have defeated Australia for the first time in their history. It was a close matter last time also at the Wankhede (in the ODI World Cup) but some catches of Maxwell (Glenn) were dropped and he made a double hundred and Afghanistan lost.”
Talking about today’s match Kaif said, “Brilliant captaincy, brilliant opening partnership by bringing in Zadran (Ibrahim) in place of Zazai (Hazratullah), did not repeat the mistakes they made against India. Zadran and Gurbaz (Rahmanullah) put up a century opening stand on a difficult pitch where the ball was moving around a lot, the ball was gripping, turning, there they put up 148 runs on the board.”
Lauding Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan, Kaif said, “Brilliant captaincy, the first over was given to Naveen-ul-Haq and not to Fazalhaq Farooqi because he knew that Naveen would dismiss Travis Head just like the last time in Wankhede and he did it the same way clean bowling Head with a ball that swung at a fast pace. After that Mohammad Nabi dismissed David Warner.
Kaif heaped special praise on Gulbadin Naib for the way he dismissed Maxwell and Marcus Stoinis, specially Maxwell who was on course for another match-winning knock and lauded the Afghans for winning hearts.

Australia now face a must-win game against India on Monday, with Afghanistan playing Bangladesh after that.