The only guy who put us in the semifinals was Brian Lara: Rashid Khan

Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan has revealed how the team was able to fulfil their promise to Brian Lara after the West Indies legend predicted that they would make it to the semifinals.

Afghanistan made it to the semifinals for the first time in the World Cup as they defeated Bangladesh in a thriller at St. Vincent.

Afghanistan had secured big wins in the tournament against New Zealand and Australia, and they knocked out the Aussies in the process to make it to the final four stage after a win at St. Vincent.

Lara had predicted ahead of the tournament that Afghanistan would be in the final four and Rashid was happy to make the West Indies legend proud.

Rashid then went on to talk about Lara, who was the only person who had picked them as potential semifinalists. The Afghan star revealed that at a welcome party, he had a word with Lara and told him they would prove him right.

“The only guy who put us in the semifinals was Brian Lara and we proved him right. When we met him at a welcome party, I told him we won’t let you down,” Rashid told commentator Simon Doull in the post-match interview.

Rashid said that the semifinal qualification feels like a dream for the team and the belief came in after their win against New Zealand.

“It’s a dream for us to be in the semifinals. The way we started the tournament, the belief came when we beat New Zealand. It’s unbelievable,” he said.

Bangladesh bowled well to restrict Afghanistan to 115-5 which Rashid thought was short of a par score: “We thought 130-135 was a good score but we fell 15 runs short.”

With Bangladesh needing to chase the total down within 12.1 overs to qualify for the semis, Rashid was expecting his bowlers to be attacked.

“We knew they would come hard at us and we knew that is what we could take advantage of. We didn’t need to do anything extra, just be clear in our plans,” he explained.