T20 World Cup 2022: Top 10 funny memes after Australia escape with a narrow win against Afghanistan to stay alive in the tournament
Australia beat Afghanistan narrowly by four runs in their final Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup 2022 on Friday (November 4) in Adelaide. After being put into bat first, Australia could only reach a total of 168/8 in 20 overs.
Glenn Maxwell (54* off 32 balls) and Mitchell Marsh (45) starred for the Aussies in the batting department. The Afghan bowlers were phenomenal in the death overs as Fazalhaq Farooqi (2/29) and Naveen-ul-Haq (3/21) successfully prevented the opposition batters from scoring heavily in the last few overs.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz (30) gave his side a brisk start in the chase by attacking the Aussie bowlers. After he was dismissed by Kane Richardson, Afghanistan motored along. They looked to be in a good position with 99/2 on the scoreboard after 12 overs due to Gulbadin Naib's (39) aggressive knock.
Glenn Maxwell's individual brilliance at this juncture brought the Aussies back into the contest as he affected a direct hit to send Gulbadin Naib back to the pavilion. Adam Zampa then quickly picked up two more wickets in the same over to derail the chase.
Afghanistan lost the plot from there as they found themselves in a precarious situation, needing 48 from the last 18 balls. Rashid Khan (48* off 23 balls) played a blistering knock and kept his side alive in the contest until the last over. However, the target eventually proved to be too much.
Speaking at the post-match presentation, Australian captain Mathew Wade reflected on the win and said:
"Having used my main bowlers and giving Stoniis the last was a bit nerve-wracking. I've seen Rashid do that in the IPL when I played with him last year. He did it a few times there and certainly gave us a scare.
"We'll stay the extra night here and stay to watch that (Eng vs SL) game. Hoping for an upset there, obviously. We have tried to chase the net run rate in this tournament. We've been a bit slow out of the blocks in this tournament. "
Fans react to Australia's hard-fought victory over Afghanistan
Cricket fans on social media enjoyed the entertaining contest between Australia and Afghanistan in Adelaide. They expressed their reactions through hilarious memes on social media.
Here are some of the reactions:
Courtesy of their victory, Australia moved up to the second position in the Group 1 points table. They will advance to the semi-finals if Sri Lanka defeats England tomorrow (November 5).