Rashid: 'Being in the semi-final is a dream come true'

Rashid: 'Being in the semi-final is a dream come true'

Rashid Khan had no words to say after Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh a shot at history and made it to the T20 World Cup 2024 semis in Kingstown.

Rashid Khan had no words to say after Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh a shot at history and made it to the T20 World Cup 2024 semis in Kingstown.

After Afghanistan scored 115 for five, Rashid and Naveen-ul-Haq clinched four wickets each to get the Bangladesh Utmost to 105 all for out in 19 overs, two runs short of their DLS revised target of 114. This caused Bangladesh and Australia to be knocked out of the tournament.

Post-match Afghanistan Captain Rashid stated, “It is like dreaming for us as a team to be in the semi-final.” The fact was that it immediately · depended on how we had begun the championship. The belief came when we beat New Zealand. So, it's unbelievable. I have no words that can explain how I am feeling. Oh, finally back home, everyone is so, so happy about this.”

‘I reckon the only person who had us in the semi-final was Brian Lara. When we met at the welcome dinner I said to him ‘We won’t let you down, we will show you that you are right.’

While Afghanistan needed only a win to qualify for the Semi-Finals, the equation for Bangladesh was much tougher: They had to pursue the target in 12.1 over, a factor that Afghanistan capitalized on. Punctuated with moments of rain, it see-sawed from one end to the other before Afghanistan emerged victorious in the final moments.

‘However, Rashid said that 130-135 was a good target on this wicket in their mind but they were short by 15-20 runs. ‘But a few games we had watched before, 115 was the best total on this wicket.’ That’s where the mindset was, it was all about the mindset. We knew that they would be charged and come hard at us to chase this total in 12 overs to reach the semi-final which was something we could capitalize on.’

‘If we bowled into the stumps here, we had the opportunity to get them out. So nothing extra is required. As far as planning was concerned, it was very clear. Putting 100 per cent effort always lies in your hands Rain drizzle is not. And we had to stretch ourselves for people back home, for their happiness to make the country proud that was the discussion, and everyone did a good job.

Read Also: Afghanistan advances to the Semifinals of T20 World Cup 2024

Rashid also praised his fast bowlers Naveen and Fazalhaq Farooqi who is currently the leading wicket-taker in the ongoing tournament. Together they ensured that Bangladesh faced 23/3 after three overs on a Monday.

“That made our job easy,” Rashid said. then if you start well, you have got spinners to come and attack the batsmen in the middle overs which was something we were lacking before but now with the quality of the fast bowlers that we have… they are not very fast bowlers but they are skilled players and I always believe that if you skill in T20 cricket you are a good asset and they had been very good in giving us good starts in the competition so far and they”.

Naveen on the other hand termed it as a surreal experience. Besides taking two wickets early on, he removed Taskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman in two consecutive overs, before the rain intervened to begin the festivities.