NEW DELHI:
Fazalhaq Farooqi
put on a superb new-ball spell as Afghanistan hammered Papua New Guinea by 7 wickets in their T20 World Cup Group C match on Friday to march into Super 8s.
Farooqi-led bowling attack first bowled PNG out for a lowly 95 at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad and the batters then chased down the target in the 16th over for the third win in a row in the group stage.
For his superb figures of 4-0-16-3, Farooqi was the obvious choice for the Player of the Match award and when he was being interviewed after the game, his skipper
Rashid Khan
was seen teasing him from behind the camera.
Looking to distract Farooqi during his interview with Ian Bishop, playful Rashid was seen making his teammate laugh.
Responding to Rashid's mischief, Farooqi laughingly told his skipper to 'shut up'.
With three wins in as many games, Afghanistan are already through to the T20 World Cup next round along with co-hosts West Indies from Group C.
Afghanistan's win on Friday also meant that the result knocked the 2021 edition's finalists New Zealand out of the tournament.
"We still have one game left, an important group game, and that's going to be a good gauge of where we are against a powerful West Indies side who won an incredible game last night (against New Zealand) from the position they were in," head coach Jonathan Trott said in the post-match press conference.
"So, it's nice to have won tonight and got qualification as such. To come to a World Cup and win three is a nice feeling, but also the realisation and reality that we haven't won anything yet.
"We only achieved the group stage and we've got some important cricket matches coming up which we're going to have to play well in."
Afghanistan play their final group game against West Indies on June 18.
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