Delhi: Afghanistan qualified for the Super 8 round with a win over Papua New Guinea in the 29th match of the ICC T20 World Cup 2024 played at the Brian Lara Stadium in Trinidad on Friday. Apart from Afghanistan, the other team to qualify for the next stage from Group C is West Indies. The victory of Rashid Khan's team has also ended New Zealand's challenge. The Kiwi team is now out of the current tournament.

While playing first, Papua New Guinea scored 95 runs, in response to which Afghanistan won by scoring 101 runs in 15.1 overs losing 3 wickets. Left-arm star fast bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi was given the Man of the Match award for taking 3 wickets.

After this spectacular victory, Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan made a big statement. 25-year-old Rashid said, “We are happy to qualify for the Super 8 round. The effort of the players has been amazing right from the first match. It seems that they know what to do. They made our job easy by doing it correctly.”

He further said, “It is important that players like Gurbaz go out on the field and bat like I am on the field and take wickets in the powerplay like Farooqi, when the batsmen attack, we as bowlers have to bowl aggressively on favorable pitches.

Rashid Khan credits IPL for Afghanistan's stellar performance

The veteran leg-spinner said, “Today others got a chance to play. We had good experience in local competitions. Everyone was in good form. Playing in the IPL helped us. Some have played for St. Luke's, so how did the pitch help us? It doesn't matter what the pitch is like. We are confident that we will play well. I hope we will win too.”