Afghanistan's Gulbadin Naib came under scrutiny after "faking" a timely injury act during the T20 World Cup 2024 match against Bangladesh at Kingstown, on Tuesday.
The Bangladesh team were chasing a target of 116 against Afghanistan, in the final Group 1 game of the Super 8 stage, with qualifications still open for the taking for all three teams - Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Australia.
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Afghanistan needed to either win the match or hope for a washout, to secure their qualification to the semi-finals, but Bangladesh's quick run scoring in the powerplay had put pressure on the Afghan bowlers to defend the below-par total. Additionally, there was also rain interruptions during the game.
The Afghanistan team managed to pull the game back in their favour through their captain Rashid Khan's outstanding 4/23 spell but Bangladesh's key batter, Litton Das, was still batting at the crease.
The incident happened during the 13th over when rain started to pour at the ground and Bangladesh's chances to qualify were over as they needed to chase down the target in 12.1 overs. But if rain had stopped play at the time, Afghanistan were ahead by the DLS method. Bangladesh needed 83 runs to be safe but they were two runs short before rain interrupted play briefly.
An Afghanistan win will take them to a historic first semifinal at a cricket World Cup and knock Australia out of contention.
Afghanistan coach, Jonathan Trott, supposedly asked the players to slow down the game, which is when Gulbadin Naib, who was fielding at slips, went down clutching his hamstrings. This was seen as an act of "time-wasting" which prompted the commentator Simon Doull to call out the player, accusing him of acting against the "Spirit of the Game".
This has got to be the most funniest thing ever 🤣 Gulbadin Naib just breaks down after coach tells him to slow things down 🤣😂 pic.twitter.com/JdHm6MfwUp
— Sports Production (@SportsProd37) June 25, 2024
Even Indian cricketer, Ravichandran Ashwin who was following the game, was amazed and posted a hilarious tweet seeing Gulbadin Naib back on his feet and bowling, after he was clutching on his hamstrings with an "injury", not long ago.
Batting, running, slip fielding, celebrating and now taking wickets.🤣🤣 https://t.co/AZZyOKe3Px pic.twitter.com/ZfPhdTj86s
— Ashwin 🇮🇳 (@ashwinravi99) June 25, 2024
Ian Smith said, "I've a dodgy knee for the last 6 months, I am gonna see Gulbadin Naib's doctor straight after the game. He's the 8th wonder of the world right now". pic.twitter.com/zEr8gdIRQZ
— Mufaddal Vohra (@mufaddal_vohra) June 25, 2024
New Zealand commentator, Ian Smith had a sarcastic take as the incident played on, while Simon Doull, was more serious about faking an injury to waste time, which he believed was a disgrace to the game's sportsman spirit.
Simon Doull is still trolling "Gulbadin" for faking his injury & coming back active right after the rain.. lol @GbNaib shame on you dude for faking your injury... be a sportsman & should work for "Spirit of a game".. now you are bowling? 8th wonder of the world you are #AFGvBAN pic.twitter.com/vgO9AwBTqI
— Sa HiB (LQ) (@SaHib__143) June 25, 2024
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