‘I am not accepting that’: Doull fumes as Gulbadin’s ‘unacceptable’ act

Gulbadin Naib’s heroic show on Sunday, in which he picked up four wickets for just 20 runs and grabbed a stunning catch, saw Afghanistan stun Australia, leaving them in a precarious spot in the race to make the T20 World Cup semifinal. 

Two days later, the all-rounder was accused of cheating during Afghanistan’s win against Bangladesh in the final Super Eight match, which saw Australia get knocked out of the tournament. While the unacceptable act sparked hilarious memes on social media, it left Australia cricketer Adam Zampa fuming.

Following losses against Afghanistan and India, Australia’s chances of making the semis hinged on Bangladesh’s win against Afghanistan, albeit by a small margin, while for Rashid Khan’s men, who had a win and a loss from the first two games in Super Eight, a win was enough to take them through.

Afghanistan eventually won the rain-affected see-saw game despite being restricted to just 115 for five. Litton Das did score a fighting half-century to keep Bangladesh in the contest despite being officially out after failing to chase down the target in 12.1 overs, but lacked support as Rashid picked up four quick wickets after the second rain delay fold the Tigers for 105 in 17.5 overs.

En route to the win, Afghanistan did find themselves in a bit of trouble during the 12th over of Bangladesh chase, when the controversy erupted. With Kingstown witnessing a slight drizzle for the third time during the match, Afghanistan’s head coach and former England international Johnathan Trott was seen signalling the players to “slow down” while pointing towards the sky. Afghanistan were narrowly ahead of the DLS par score and hence a win would have been evitable even if the rest of the game was washed out.

Seconds after Trott’s gesture, Gulbadin, who was standing still at first slip, inexplicably clutched his hamstring and fell on the ground, claiming to be injured. Captain Rashid wasn’t happy with the act at all, and neither were the commentators, among whom a few were left furious while others were left in splits. Afghanistan eventually got their wish as Gulbadin’s act ensured another ball wouldn’t come.

“Oh no no no, sorry. You can’t have this,” former New Zealand cricketer Simon Doull said on-air, “I’m not accepting that. Even Rashid (Khan) doesn’t like it.It’s just delay tactics. I get it but I don’t like that at all. It is unacceptable. They might have gone off anyway for the rain but that’s not a good look.”

Play, however, resumed a few minutes later and Gulbadin was back on the field, picked up a wicket and later was seen joining fellow Afghanistan players in their wild celebrations on reaching the semifinal.

Following the win for Afghanistan, which saw Australia get knocked out, Zampa took a brutal dig at Gulbadin in his Instagram post as he shared a grab of the incident and captioned it: “The old rainstring.”

Former England captain Michael Vaughan also joined Zampa as he tweeted: “Great to see Gulbadin become the first cricketer in the history of the game to get a wicket 25 mins after being shot…”

Afghanistan will face South Africa in the first semifinal of the 2024 T20 World Cup on June 27 at the Brian Lara Cricket Academy.