‘Funniest thing I’ve seen’: Afghan’s cramp under scrutiny | cricket.com.au

by Admin
June 26, 2024

Mitch Marsh labelled Gulbadin Naib’s suspected mischief during the dramatic World Cup match that knocked Australia out of the World Cup “one of the funniest things I’ve ever seen on a cricket field”.

Pending his recovery from what Adam Zampa termed a “rainstring”, Gulbadin appears set to play in Afghanistan’s first ever senior World Cup semi-final (against South Africa on Thursday morning AEST) though there remains some possibility the allrounder could be sanctioned by the International Cricket Council.

Coach Jonathan Trott was spotted on television cameras urging his team to slow down play after Bangladesh, chasing Afghanistan’s 5-115, fell behind the DLS target at 7-81 in the 12th over as rain threatened to stop play for a third time in their innings in St Vincent.

As Marsh’s Australians gathered at their St Lucia hotel to cheer on a Bangladesh victory that would have put them through to the final four, Gulbadin, standing at slip, theatrically fell to the turf clutching his leg.

Rashid Khan said later the veteran had suffered from cramp but the Afghan captain did not initially appear impressed by the 33-year-old’s sudden collapse.

“I was almost in tears laughing and at the end of the day it had no bearing on the game,” said Marsh. “So we can laugh about it now – but gee it was funny. It was outstanding.”

Gulbadin proceeded to charge in with the ball in a vital two-over burst, vigorously celebrate his wicket of Tanzim Hasan Sakib and doing the same when Afghanistan’s historic win was sealed. He was also front and centre in footage captured in their changerooms of assistant coach Dwayne Bravo leading a fresh rendition of his ubiquitous ‘Champion’ song.

If all that was not enough of an indication of some cheekiness on Gulbadin’s behalf, the subsequent photo he posted to social media by the 33-year-old of him smiling alongside team physiotherapist Prasanth Panchada captioned “wonders can happen” might have done it.

“He had some cramp. I don’t know what happened to him and I don’t know what’s going on in social media but that doesn’t matter,” said Rashid.

Naib posted a photo with the Afghanistan physio after the match // Supplied

Adam Zampa reacts to the incident on Instagram // Supplied

“We haven’t lost any overs, the rain came and we just went off, it’s not something (that) brought a massive difference in the game … for me, it’s just like a small injury comes in, then you have to take some time.”

The ICC’s playing conditions specifically call out that it is “unfair for any fielder to waste time” and give scope for umpires to charge players or captains if they believe the time-wasting was “deliberate or repetitive”.

A two-game ban is the maximum penalty for time-wasting though a first and final warning appears more likely if Gulbadin was in fact reported.

While Marsh appreciated the comedy of the spectacle, Australia’s skipper conceded it had been a tough watch for his team whose fate was out of their hands following back-to-back defeats to Afghanistan and India.

“We watched it as a group. It was obviously a pretty amazing game wasn’t it? A lot of twists and turns,” he said.

“Obviously you want to keep playing this tournament and that was our only way of doing it. But there’s also the element that it was completely out of our control and we only had ourselves to blame for that.

“We were all flat (when the final wicket fell). We were desperate to continue on in the tournament. But fair play to Afghanistan – they beat us and they beat Bangladesh and they deserve to be in the semi-finals.”

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The Gulbadin incident was one of several charged moments in a remarkable and, at times, amusing contest that held consequences for three of the four Super Eight Group 1 teams.

Rashid had earlier hurled his bat in the direction of batting partner Karim Janat for failing to take a second run that would have put him back on strike. The spirited Afghan skipper hit three sixes anyway, one more than the remaining 21 players managed for the entire game.

That tipped his side over to a competitive total on a tough pitch, but still one Bangladesh fancied themselves to chase down within a timeframe of 12.1 overs. Doing so would have seen them leapfrog both Afghanistan and Australia into a semi-final.

After multiple rain breaks, Bangladesh got to the 10-over break needing 39 from 13 balls to fulfil the unlikely equation. But by captain Najmul Shanto’s later retelling, the Tigers had given up on that and were instead simply focusing on registering a consolation win that would send the Aussies through to the semi.

Litton Das, who carried his bat for an unbeaten half-century in vain, looked to have gotten the message. But wild swings across the line from Mahmudullah and Rishad Hossain against Rashid gave the ace bowler wickets in consecutive balls, sparking a collapse of 5-25.

“I think as a batting group we made a lot of poor decisions that cost us today,” said Shanto, who was dismissed in the Powerplay for five taking on paceman Naveen-ul-Haq.

“The plan was that we would try to score in the first six overs. If we start well and we don’t lose the early wickets, then we will take the chance. But when we lost three early wickets, our plan was different. Our plan was how we could win the match (using the full allocation of overs) then.

“Because our plan was to win the match, I would say that the middle order didn’t make a good decision. Because of this, I think we lost the match.”

Rashid admitted he was sympathetic to Australia’s plight – “if we were in the place of Australia, we would have supported the same team” – but coach Trott urged his side to not overawed when they face South Africa in Trinidad for a spot in the decider.

“We go into the semi-final with no scarring or no history with regards to semi-finals,” said the Cape Town-born former England Test batter, perhaps a sly reference to the Proteas own shaky reputation in knockout games.

“This is uncharted territory for us. We’re just going to go out there and give it our all.

“By no means do we feel like we’re going into the semi-final just to compete. We’re there to win the semi-final. We’ve seen we’ve beaten some major teams.

“We’ve won by large margins. We’ve won by tight margins. We’ve won in close games. So that’s going to serve us well going forward to the semi-final.”