Afghanistan is still going strong at little under five overs, and Hashmatullah Shahidi should be pressing the accelerator since Ibrahim Zadran is probably going to anchor the team virtually the entire way. Shahidi came down the track to attack on that second ball you see there, which indicates W. However, Star, even though he’s not playing at his best today, fired down a sizzling ins winging yorker at 141 km/h that the hitter had no answer for.
Afghanistan in a weak position? Hold on. The new batsman, Azmatullah Omarzai, plays out a couple of dots before receiving a full delivery from Starc. Suddenly, he rips off a magnificent lofted drive over mid-off for a six. The shot was out, and the fielder was in. That certainly missed the mark!
When he comes on for his fifth over, Hashmatullah Shahidi and Ibrahim Zadran each get a boundary off him in an over that ends with 11 runs. He has conceded just 16 runs in his first four overs. Afghanistan approaches five runs in an over.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz had been leading the opening pair with Ibrahim Zadran for a strong twenty-five deliveries when Gurbaz lost his wicket with a clumsy pluck to deep square leg.
The in-form Rahmat Shah now comes down the track against Glenn Maxwell with the field spread out and chips one of the easiest catches to long-off after being set for 44 balls.
Two good starts, two dropped wickets. Afghanistan will be hoping that none of their other batters follow suit. After 25, they are 122 for 2.
There have been concerns about Afghanistan’s middle order and whether they need to perform well in ODIs ever since the Asia Cup. The middle order has performed well in the World Cup and has assisted them in chasing down targets, but one of Australia’s openers needed to calm down and set the stage for the middle order in order to make Australia a formidable opponent today. Ibrahim Zadran, hello. The more composed of the two openers, better in control of his shots today, and currently leading Afghanistan with a fifty off 62 balls, with his drives, particularly between the covers.
Even though we only saw 20 overs, he had the shot of the day when Cummins bowled a short ball that bounced off the bat and Ibrahim Zadran barely moved his arms to follow the ball’s patch and ramp it over the keeper with the fewest amount of body movement! This would be the easiest way to push the envelope without really moving your body.
Afghanistan, with 99 for 1 after 20 overs, had completed roughly half of the task.
Mitchell Starc scored 19 runs in three overs during his opening period, and he faced ten balls in his second over! He got as many as four wides in a row: one outside off, three down the leg side, and even one around the wicket to end the over. Starc’s day isn’t going well so far—5-0-35-0.
As Gurbaz and Ibrahim were getting settled in, Josh Hazlewood produced an unexpectedly bad delivery that Ibrahim hit for four runs. But after three balls, Gurbaz plays a shoddy pull against a player positioned at deep square leg. Disappointed, Gurbaz drops his bat on the ground and stares in shock at the Australian celebrations.
This World Cup, Hazlewood has been Australia’s most formidable powerplay player. As always, very accurate and affordable. In the first ten overs of this World Cup, his economy rate (ER) is just 4.38, trailing only Jasprit Bumrah’s 2.73 and Taskin Ahmed’s 3.89 (minimum 100 balls bowled).
They will be facing two of the world’s top bowlers, Starc and Hazlewood, and Gurbaz and Ibrahim have both performed admirably in the first five. They have played their strokes when the ball has been placed up or wide, they have borne with Starc’s early swing, and they have dutifully defended the good balls, particularly those from Hazlewood around off stump.