In the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024, Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by 8 runs as per the DLS method to qualify for the World Cup semifinal. This is the first time Afghanistan has qualified for the T20 semifinal. This is a great honor for the Afghanistan cricket team. In the Super Eight fixture, Afghanistan won the toss and elected to bat first. Batting first due to poor batting performance, they could only make 115 in 20 overs at the expense of 5 wickets. The leading run scorer was Rahmanullah Gurbaz with 43 runs from 55 balls with 3 fours and 1 six, and Rashid Khan made a quick fire with 19 runs with 3 sixes from 10 balls. And the leading wicket-taker from Bangladesh was Rishad Hossain, with three wickets. The target for Bangladesh was 116 from 20 overs, and to qualify for the seminal, their target was to win the match in 12.1 overs. Chasing the target Bangladesh loose wickets at regular intervals, none of the batsmen could stick to the wicket except Liton Das, who made 52 from 49 balls with five fours and six. The Afghanistan bowlers were bowling exceptionally well, which restricted Bangladesh from reaching the semifinals as well as winning the match. There was a few rain intervals in between the Bangalore batting, and the target for them to win was revised to 114 from 19 overs as per the DLS method. The performance of the Afghanistan bowler was too good for a Bangladeshi batsman; Naveen-ul-Haq took a career best of 4 wickets, giving away 26 runs; Rashid Khan got 4 wickets from 4 overs, giving away only 23 runs; and Gulbadin Naib and Fazalhaq Farooqi took 1 wicket each. Naveen-ul-Haq was declared Man of the Match for the spectacular bowling.
Afghanistan will now play South Africa in the second seminal on June 27.