Australia’s stand-in captain Matthew Wade said concerns over a slow start in the T20 World Cup could affect their semi-final chances which depend on the outcome of the England vs Sri Lanka match on Saturday.
Australia registered a narrow four-run win over Afghanistan in their last Super 12 match on Friday to keep their campaign alive in the mega event.
England, who are currently placed third, will face Sri Lanka and can make it to the semi-finals with a win. Australia will qualify for the semi-finals only after Sri Lanka’s win against England.
Wade said, “We’ll stay here tonight and watch tomorrow’s match. We’ll expect upsets. We’ve put ourselves in this position from the start, we’ve been slow in this tournament and hopefully it doesn’t hurt us,” Wade said. Will happen.” Told.
Australia were saved from a mighty scare after Rashid Khan met the hopes of a sensational 48 off 23 balls.
“We gave Stoinis the last over, it’s nerve-wracking to have an all-rounder to bowl the last over. I played him IPL And I have seen him do this 3-4 times. But at no point did I feel completely certain,” Wade said.
Chasing 169 for victory, Afghanistan slipped from 99/2 to 99/5 in 13.4 overs.
Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi blamed the loss of crucial wickets in the middle overs for the loss.
“Really good game of cricket, he started really well, Farooqui bowled well in the end. The way we started in the powerplay and in the middle, but we throw four wickets in the middle under pressure,” he said.
“It’s really hard to play one game and then not play for 10 days. We didn’t gain momentum at all through this tournament. Day by day we improve and we had a great game today.”
(Inputs from PTI)