Ibrahim Zadran‘s hundred against Australia was not just the first World Cup century by an Afghanistan batter: it was symbolic of Afghanistan’s batting graduation to the next level, writes Naman Agarwal, who was at the venue.
The cover fielder has just had a routine shy at the stumps at the non-striker’s end. There was no chance of a run out, but fielders don’t wait for that these days, do they? The bowler, however, has asked the fielder to not do that, lest he ended up conceding unnecessary overthrows. Reasonable request, you’d think. But when the team in question is Australia, the bowler is their captain Pat Cummins, and the opposition is Afghanistan, it feels odd.
When you play a World Cup match against a team that has played in fewer tournaments than the one Australia won, you expect them to be on top, ruthless, and not care about the extra points that come with it. Sho. Thrown into the stumps. But they do. Because the scoreboard shows him 204-3 after 41 overs.
Biggest chase in ODI cricket at this venue – 291st
For years, Afghan weirdos have been the face of Afghanistan. In this World Cup, his batting power has reversed. Wankhede at his stadium celebrated the end of the match against Australia led by Ibrahim Zadran.
Before the 2023 World Cup, Afghanistan had crossed 270 in an ODI innings only once, including Pakistan, England, India and Australia combined. At the World Cup, he was successful in four out of four attempts.
<iframe Loading=”lazy” style=”border-radius: 12px;” src=”https://open.spotify.com/embed/show/1XeleYXleZeyGRpmoG2Nzw?utm_source=generator” width=”100%” height=”352″ Frameborder=”0″allowfullscreen=”allowfullscreen”></iframe> ;
“I am very cautious in saying that you can clear anything in a game of cricket. Once you think you have cleared the game, it will start to haunt you again, believe me,” he once said of his batting. Asked if they did well, Afghan coach Jonathan Trott, who galvanized his team with the methodical calm that was their hallmark, said: Crack his code for ODI tracking after the match against Netherlands.
Mr Trott’s concerns are well-founded and his comments refer to a second attack, but looking at Afghanistan’s response to Australia in Mumbai shows they are actually on the right track regarding the attack. This seems to suggest that he may be on board.
When the World Cup started, all the bowling attackers knew that if they eliminated the top three Afghans, the rest would follow. As you might imagine, only three batsmen averaged more than 35 in ODI cricket at the start of the World Cup, with the top three in the World Cup team being Ibrahim Zadran (51.83), Rahmanullah Gurbaz (38.65) and Rahmat. -Shah (36 RBIs). 12). ).
The first match against Bangladesh was a disaster as they were bowled out for 156. When Gurbaz, Zadran and Rahmat all suffered a crushing defeat in the second match against India, it looked like Afghanistan would be in for a long run. But then an unexpected hero appeared. Captain Hashmatullah Shahidi scored 80 points at No. 4 and Azmatullah Omarzai scored 62 points at No. 5, making it the second time that Afghanistan’s four and five players have scored over 60 points in an ODI.
Ikram Alikil patiently scored 58 runs against England, becoming the third Afghan batsman to score an ODI fifty at number six. He made a blunder against New Zealand and was bowled out for 139, but the Afghanistan batting line-up responded strongly against Pakistan. On a difficult surface in Chennai, they chased 283 and lost just two wickets. The top four players each scored more than his 45 points, which was Afghanistan’s second such feat in his ODI history.
The most encouraging takeaway from this campaign so far is that their shots weren’t just in the top two or three. Different people, from different walks of life, improved the game. Although Big Show’s freak show stole the match in Mumbai, Afghanistan’s match against Australia at the Wankhede Stadium felt like the culmination of all their World Cup efforts so far.
span Ibrahim was as usual solid at the other end and got the innings going with a great cover drive against Mitchell Starc in the third over.
Australia, without much support on the ground, tried to confuse the situation. They bowled short early on. Starc was replaced by Glenn Maxwell in the seventh over of the innings. It didn’t take long for Cummins to throw a slow ball.
Span
Sometimes it wasn’t easy to do. They scored just five runs from the 32nd to 34th over. If the batsmen had been solid near the crease, it would have been easy for them to panic and utter unwarranted abuse. However, faced with the last ball of the 34th over, Ibrahim smoothly guided the ball to third man and got a single.
As he made clear after the game, he knew it was his job to dig deeper into this issue. “I didn’t want to give any wickets and I wanted to play longer till the end. I knew that if I had wickets I could easily reach 100, 120 in the last 10 overs,” Zadran said after the match. .
In fact, Afghanistan scored 96 in the last 10 overs. Omarzai (22 of 18), Mohammad Nabi (12 of 10) and Rashid Khan (35 of 18) all contributed cameos. Even Ibrahim stepped in after over 100 balls and added 28 runs off the last 12 balls.
During Australia’s turnaround, it looked as if Afghanistan had scored more than enough points. If they had continued to defend their chances on the field, it would have been the same.
There is an argument that if the batsmen had given their all, they might have accelerated faster and avoided some of the dismissals, but the improvement in Afghanistan’s batting was clear and immeasurable, and against Australia. Ibrahim was standard. Bearer.
To bet on the World Cup with our Match Centre Partners bet365 head here.
