AFG Were Not Aware Of The Qualification Scenario As Farooqi Blocked All Three Balls And SL Qualified
AFG Were Not Aware Of The Qualification Scenario As Farooqi Blocked All Three Balls And SL Qualified:
The match between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka was a do-or-die for both teams as the winner of the match qualified for the Asia Cup Super 4 stage.
The last group-stage match of the Asia Cup 2023 ended in a bizarre fashion when Afghanistan had a chance to qualify but they didn’t even try to win the match.
MATCH SCENARIO:
Afghanistan had a scenario as they had to chase down the target in 37.1 overs if they wanted to qualify for the SUPER 4s of the Asia Cup 2023 which they failed and were eliminated from Asia Cup 2023.
Afghans needed 3 runs from the first ball of the 38th over to qualify for the second round but Mujeeb Ur Rehman was dismissed by D. Silva and the Afghans thought they were eliminated from the tournament.
Afghan batters, Fazal Haq Farooqi, and Rashid Khan who were batting on 27 not out weren’t aware of the fact that they needed to hit one six to qualify for the SUPER 4 of the Asia Cup.
They could have tied the scores and then one six was needed on the last three balls of the match to get their overall team score to 297 and qualify for the SUPER 4s of the Asia Cup but the Afghan batter blocked all three deliveries.
Another chance for Afghanistan was to score exactly 295 runs on the 37.5TH ball and as a result, the run rate of AFG and SL would have tied.
In such a scenario, a coin toss rule would’ve been used to determine the qualified team but unfortunately, Afghanistan was not aware of this fact.
FAROOQI AND RASHID:
Fazal Haq Farooqi blocked all three balls bowled by D. Silva and Farooqi eventually threw his wicket on the third ball, which resulted in Afghan losing the match by 2 runs.
They just needed two runs to win the match and one six to qualify for the SUPER 4 stage of the tournament but looks like no one was aware of this fact in the Afghan dressing room.
Afghan batters should’ve at least tried to win the game, but they were so heartbroken that they bottled a won game and helped Sri Lanka to qualify.
