Babar Azam’s Pakistan team suffered a shocking loss as Afghanistan delivered their second upset of the World Cup 2023. This loss of Pakistan led to a spate of memes on Twitter, trolling Babar’s side for their poor bowling and even horrific fielding performance.
In the commentary box, Pommie Mbangwa called them the world cup winner slayer as earlier in the tournament they defeated the 2019 World Cup winners, England, in Delhi, and now have defeated the 1992 World Cup winners, Pakistan, in Chennai.
It wasn’t a one-man show for Afghanistan, but a collective effort of multiple players that helped them record their first-ever ODI win over Pakistan. And what a time to do it: Pakistan now have lost three matches in a row – to India, Australia, and Afghanistan – after winning their first two matches to Netherlands and Sri Lanka. Pakistan now don’t have any room for error, and they can’t afford another loss if they have to reach the semi-finals.
Left-arm wrist-spinner Noor Ahmad was brought in the side specifically for this game, and he delivered on his World Cup debut, picking up a three-wicket haul that included wickets of Babar, Shafique, and Rizwan.
Babar top-scored with 74, Shafique scored 58, and Shadab and Iftikhar scored 40 runs each to take Pakistan to a total of 282.
Many thought that this total would be enough for Pakistan to defend. However, Afghanistan remained steady throughout their chase and never panicked, as they had done on multiple occasions previously.
Their top three all scored half-centuries: Rahmanullah Gurbaz scored 65 runs, Ibrahim Zadran scored 87 runs, and Rahmat Shah scored 77 unbeaten runs. Captain and number 4 Hashmatullah Shahidi also played brilliantly to score 48* runs in 45 balls. Pakistan didn’t help themselves with some really sloppy fielding efforts that caused them plenty of runs. Afghanistan won with 8 wickets in hand and 6 balls to spare.
Pakistan team got trolled brutally on Twitter after their loss to Afghanistan:
Ibrahim Zadran is the Player of the Match. He said: “Thankful that I performed well in this event. I wanted to play with a positive intent. Many times Gurbaz and I have done a brilliant partnership together. We have played a lot of cricket together, right from the Under-16 days. I am feeling very glad for myself and for my country.”
