Cricket’s uncertainty has been witnessed on numerous occasions throughout the history, and the more significant the match the more dramatic the uncertainty becomes. The 28th match of the ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2019 was yet another testament to the fact when Afghanistan lost the most potential match against the tournament favorite India in the last-over drama as they failed to chase down 224 runs in 50 overs.
India Crumbled Down to Afghan Bowling
India was among the top favorites in the tournament. They bid with a tremendous batting line-up, arguably the best in the world of cricket, and that was supported by a well-equipped bowling arsenal. But they almost lost the match to Afghanistan that day.
Captain Kohli Shone but India was Dimly Lit
The 2019 World Cup witnessed a completely different Virat Kohli, not only because he was the captain of the ship as well as the opener but also because of his unmatched fitness & form, and unmatched it was indeed. He was not having a similar performance from his teammates to uphold the vision of championship which they lost in the semi-final ultimately. He scored 67 runs off 63 balls with 5 boundaries. Before being caught out by a delivery from Nabi, his strike rate was 106.34.
The second highest scorer of the team was Kedar Jadhav with 52 runs off 68 balls. No one else in the team managed to score more than 30 runs in that innings. Opener, and perhaps the most aggressive hard-hitter batsman of the team, Rohit Sharma was sent back to the dressing room after facing 10 balls with just 1 run made off those. On the other hand, former Captain MS Dhoni scored only 28 runs off 52 balls.
The Afghan Bowlers Meant Business
The Afghan bowlers definitely did a commendable job in that match. Captain Gulbadin Naib used six bowlers including himself and all of them showed results with at least a wicket each. Gulbadin and Mohammad Nabi scalped two wickets each and they both bowled 9 overs. Aftab Alam was the most expensive bowler for the Afghans. He scalped a wicket giving away 54 runs off 7 overs with 1 maiden over.
Clearly, at the end of the innings, the Afghan batsmen were in a very high spirit and confidence about winning the match. The Afghan bowling line-up was not that much feared by the Indian batsmen, yes, but perhaps, they let a bit of their guard down, for it was quite an astonishing feat for the Afghan bowlers to have India packed up with just 224 runs in 50 overs at the cost of 8 wickets. But the match was only half played by this time and the Afghans were far, far away from victory.
A Hat-Trick & A Last-Over Drama
No matter who is playing, the nail-biting moments produced by the game of cricket becomes the most intense when chasing rolls down to the last over. But Afghanistan is not experienced enough, yet, to chase a match down to victory because that process starts from the top. This match was destined to go down in history because of India’s unexpected batting disaster, but even more so because it ended in the last over only. And what an end it was!
Nabi’s Half-Century Failed to Uphold Hope
In many cricket matches, an outstanding innings by just one player- batsman or bowler- can be enough to decide the fate of the match. After the frustrating batting of the Indians and the surprising bowling performance of the Afghans, the match was heavily skewed towards the latter. But the Afghan batsmen were not fighting diligently enough to grasp their hold tightly on the victory against the tournament favorite. While chasing, a team must put efforts from the top if they intend to win.
Had they been putting enough effort from the beginning of the innings, the match was an easy win for them and they did not need to play it till the last over. Mohammad Nabi played a beautiful innings of 52 runs off 55 balls with 4 boundaries and 1 maximum. No other Afghan batsman scored anything significant but there was a very inadequate combined effort put together by the 8 of the other 10 batsmen.
Now, a lot of this is to be credited to the responsible bowling performance of the Indians. 4 of the 5 bowlers used by Kohli successfully performed their duty with Jaspreet Bumrah, Yuzvendra Chahal & Hardik Pandya taking 2 wickets each. Only Kuldeep Yadav was lacking a hunt despite bowling 10 very useful overs at the expense of only 39 runs.
And It All Comes Down to the Last Over
Only Mohammed Shami had just 1 wicket in his collection till the 49th over when Afghanistan needed 16 runs from the last over and he was called back in action by Captain Kohli to finish the match off, surely expecting some miracle to work out and turn that ill-fated day into his favor. But, perhaps, even he did not expect the scoreboard to change the way it was done.
At the beginning of the last over, Mohammad Nabi was in full-form & confident of victory. He was facing every critical delivery with ease & professionalism, determined to remain on the pitch till the end to live up to the expectations of him as a senior player of the team. Every eye around the stadium was on him as he was on the way to a half-century.
And he completed his half-century by hitting a boundary on Shami’s 1st delivery of the 50th over. Nabi’s score was 52 runs off 53 balls at that time. 12 runs were required to win off 5 balls now and Nabi denied a single in the next delivery with the intention to finish the match himself. Afghanistan was at 213-7. 12 runs off 4 balls were required at the moment.
A World-Cup Hat-Trick by Mohammed Shami!!!
Nabi hit the next full-toss with the intention of getting a six, but Shami cramped the delivery just enough so that Nabi’s hit became too short to cross the rope in the long-on and was securely taken-in by Hardik Pandya. Afghanistan was at 213-8. 12 runs were required off 3 balls to win the match. The 10th batsman Aftab Alam came in to face the 4th ball of the over, hit the ball like there was nothing to lose, missed the middle stump in the process and went back to the pavilion adding nothing to the scoreboard for his team. Afghanistan was at 213-9.
At this very moment, right before throwing the 5th delivery of the over, neither Shami knew he was going to make history, nor did anyone else watching the match. But India’s victory was, in a way, secured by then. Although the 11th batsman, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, does have it in him to hit hard enough to score two back to back maximums to win the match, Shami was a tad too tricky for him. Shami hit the stumps yet again and voila!
A World Cup Hat-Trick was made by Mohammed Shami in the most dramatic of situations sending Rahman back to the dressing room with 0 runs added to the team’s collection and India beat Afghanistan by 11 runs. And that, dear readers, is the beauty of the game called Cricket!
