The Pakistani cricket team suffered a humiliating defeat against Afghanistan and this has left the majority of Pakistani cricket fans in a shocked state. This is the first time that Afghanistan has defeated Pakistan in the ODI format and the head coach of Pakistan team, Mickey Arthur must be very sad, angry and upset.
This is the third consecutive defeat of Pakistan in the ongoing ICC ODI World Cup and it may affect their chances of playing the semi-finals in an adverse manner. In the beginning of the tournament, almost every former cricketer and cricket expert predicted that Pakistan will be in the top four but the manner in which the Pakistani team is playing, even their die-hard fans are not sure whether this team deserves to be in the top four.
Pakistan has played five matches, won the first two matches and started losing matches from the third one which they played against India. On that day, Mickey Arthur was quite unhappy and he even went on to call it a BCCI event and not an ICC event. He also expressed his unhappiness over the fact that songs supporting Pakistan such as “Dil Dil Pakistan” were not played and he added that the lack of crowd support may have also played a role in Pakistan’s defeat.
However, now after Pakistan lost the match to Afghanistan, the former England cricketer Michael Vaughan has taken a jibe at Mickey Arthur. Michael Vaughan tweeted, “I presume ‘Dil Dil’ Pakistan wasn’t played in Chennai today”.
I presume ‘Dil Dil’ Pakistan wasn’t played in Chennai today @clubprairiefire #CWC2023 😜
— Michael Vaughan (@MichaelVaughan) October 23, 2023
As far as the match is concerned, the toss was won by Pakistan and they made Afghanistan bowl first. Pakistan’s cricket team put up a competitive total of 282/7 on the scoreboard with the help of brilliant knocks of Abdullah Shafique (58 runs) and Babar Azam (74 runs). Chasing a target of 283 was not an easy task against one of the best bowling attacks of the world but with their resilience and determination, Afghani batters scripted history.
The openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (65 runs) and Ibrahim Zadran (87 runs) stitched a partnership of 130 runs for the first wicket and gave the other batters a solid platform to chase and make their team win the match. After these two got out, Rahmat Shah (77 runs not out) and skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi (48 runs not out) ensured that no other batter got out and their team scripted history by winning the match.
This was a good one from Michael Vaughan, what do you say?