Afghanistan won the toss and chose to bat in just their third game of the tournament, after rain spoiled their party on two occasions. Aaron Finch missed out due to a hamstring injury in what could possibly be his last T20I for Australia and Tim David sat out as well. In a surprising call, Mitchell Starc was dropped for Kane Richardson and Steve Smith replaced David in the line-up.
Australia opened with Green and Warner, who raced to 23 in two overs before Farooqi picked up the wicket of Green with a wonderful delivery, extracting good bounce. Warner too got off to a good, positive start before Naveen’s slower ball foxed him and his dear mate Steven Smith in the same over. Marsh was dropped on 19 off Gulbadin’s bowling and smashed his way to an entertaining 45(30). Maxwell and Stoinis accelerated well in the middle over, show casing their hitting prowess and Australia looked all set for a competitive total of 180. Mohammad Nabi and his experience was on display with his smart bowling changes and precise field placements. Afghanistan bowlers were able to stem the run flow in the end overs and restricted Australia to 168-8.
Afghanistan would have certainly fancied their chances and required the opening pair to attack and make use of the powerplay. They made their way to 47-2 at the end of 6 overs with Gulbadin and Ibrahim tasked to hold the fort and keep Afghanistan in the game. The middle overs are a key phase of the game and batters must ensure a high scoring rate. Gulbadin played some wonderful shots, building a great partnership with Ibrahim, ending 13 overs at 98/2. The fickle nature of this format increases the probability of a comeback for the opposition teams and Australia were able to strangle Afghanistan in a period of some poor cricket from Afghanistan. They lost 4 wickets in the space of 12 balls and at 106-6, it seemed that they let a great chance slip.
Rashid Khan, the local boy by all means, entered the Oval to huge cheers and was brimming with confidence. His swinging wrists have smacked many boundaries for Adelaide Strikers in the BBL and Rashid displayed his skills with the bat, taking the equation to 22 off 6. Wade handed the ball to Stoinis who had a fired-up Rashid Khan ahead of him that almost saw his team through what would have been an upset for the ages. Australia won the game by 4 runs and reached a maximum of 7 points, hoping that England fall prey to some Sri Lankan brilliance
