AFGAN PLAYER ACCUSED OF FAKING INJURY

 Gulbadin Naib was accused of faking injury to waste time before taking a wicket that helped secure Afghanistan’s first World Cup semi-final, eliminating Australia and sparking scenes of joy in Kabul.

Afghanistan needed to beat Bangladesh to take their place in the World Cup semi-final at Australia’s expense − and they won a rain-affected classic in St Vincent to set up a last-four clash with South Africa.

Afghanistan’s eight-run win (using the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern method) was not without controversy.

Bangladesh had stumbled to 81 for seven in the 12th over in response to Afghanistan’s 115. With rain starting to fall, Afghanistan’s head coach Jonathan Trott, the former England batsman, was seen on the boundary telling his players to slow the game down in the hope the umpires would take the players from the field. Afghanistan, at that point, were ahead on DLS.

Veteran Gulbadin, fielding at slip to the spinner, took Trott’s instruction very literally and suddenly fell to the ground clutching his leg, appearing to feign a hamstring injury.

Moments later, the players were being taken from the field, with Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan appearing unhappy with his player’s behaviour and Bangladesh batsman Litton Das mocking Gulbadin.

A short rain delay followed, with the players returning having lost one over and Bangladesh’s target adjusted to 114.

Rashid bowled his last over (finishing with brilliant figures of four for 23) and soon turned to Gulbadin, who had bowled superbly in the win over Australia on Sunday. With his second ball, he picked up the eighth wicket of Tanzim Hasan Sakib before Naveen-ul-Haq took the final two wickets amid scenes of high drama.

The win is a seismic moment for Afghanistan cricket, whose men’s team have emerged as a real force in the game over the last decade (the ruling Taliban, meanwhile, have banned their women’s team from playing). They are now one win away from a World Cup final.

For Australia, it is a brutal blow, though. They made a flying start to the tournament and fast bowler Josh Hazlewood even wondered aloud whether they could engineer England’s elimination by deliberately underperforming against Scotland. But after Super 8 staged defeats to Afghanistan and India, Australia are heading home, with England through to the semi-finals. They will face India on Thursday in Guyana.

- Nick Mulvenney