The Afghanistan cricket team continued their brilliant run of form in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2024 as they defeated Bangladesh in a thriller to book their spot in the semi-finals on Tuesday. This was the first time that Afghanistan qualified for the semi-finals of any International Cricket Council (ICC) event. The Rashid Khan-led side has been on a giant-killing spree with a win over New Zealand in the group stage and a sensational victory over Australia in the Super 8. Afghanistan needed a win over Bangladesh to book their semi-final berth and the result also meant that Australia were eliminated. Following the victory, Rashid received a call from Taliban Foreign Minister Amir Khan Muttaqi.
In a video posted by the Afghanistan Cricket Board on social media platform X (formerly Twitter), Muttaqi was seen congratulating Rashid for the sensational victory. Muttaqi began the conversation with "Mubarak" and he had a special message for Rashid and the rest of the Afghanistan team.
Afghanistan will now face South Africa in the first T20 World Cup 2024 semi-final on Thursday.
"It's something like a dream for us as a team being in the semifinal. It's all about the way we have started the tournament. The belief came while we beat New Zealand. It's unbelievable."
"I don't have any words to describe my feelings. Back home, everyone is so happy for this big achievement. The only guy who put us in the semifinal was Brian Lara and we proved that right. Before the competition at the welcome party, I told him, 'We won't let you down. We'll make it through and prove you're right.' I am proud of this team. We thought 130-135 was a good total on this wicket."
"We were 15-20 runs short. It was all about the mindset. We knew they would come hard at us to chase that in 12 overs to get into the semifinal. That's where we could take advantage. If we bowled into the stumps, we had a better chance to getting them out. We didn't have to do anything extra. We just had to be clear with our plans. We put in the effort, that's in our hands," Rashid Khan said.