T20 World Cup: David Warner Tries A Switch-Hit, Here’s What Happened Next. Watch | Cricket News

Australia kept their T20 World Cup semi-finals hopes alive as they defeated Afghanistan by four runs in Adelaide. While Australia moved to the second spot in the points table, they needed a big win over Afghanistan to improve their net run-rate. However, if England fail to win their final match against Sri Lanka on Saturday, Australia will join New Zealand in the semi-finals from Group 1. Australia lost skipper Aaron Finch and Tim David to hamstring injuries and dropped pace bowler Mitchell Starc before being put into bat by Afghanistan captain Mohammad Nabi on Friday.They needed to score 180+ in order to go above England on net-run rate, but failed to do so despite Glenn Maxwell’s unbeaten 54 off 32 balls.Veteran batter David Warner had given Australia a bright start before losing his wicket, owing to a weird shot-selection.Warner, who was batting on 25 off 17 balls, switched to a right-handed grip, but was castled by Naveen-ul-Haq.The incident happened on the first ball of the sixth over as Naveen bowled a length delivery, and took the pace off it.Warner, with his right-handed grip, mistimed his shot and the ball rattled the stumps after taking an inside edge.Australia also needed to restrict Afghanistan to a score of 106 or less to get ahead of England on net run-rate, but almost lost the game.Rashid Khan scored an unbeaten 48 of 23 balls while Gulbadin Naib and Rahmanullah Gurbaz played cameos of 39 and 30, respectively.Earlier on Friday, New Zealand defeated Ireland by 35 runs at the Adelaide Oval.PromotedAs things stand, New Zealand are top of the group with seven points. Australia too have seven points but they have a negative run-rate.England are third with five points, and will reach the final if they beat Sri Lanka on Saturday.Topics mentioned in this article



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