Former India opener Gautam Gambhir said Afghanistan’s World Cup 2023 win against Pakistan reflects their current state of cricket and their campaign in the tournament as well. However, Pakistan set Afghanistan a 283-run target in Chennai on Monday, October 23. Afghanistan then registered an eight-wicket win with an over to spare to beat them for the first time in an ODI.
During a discussion on Star Sports, Gambhir said: “If you have chased down 280 runs for the loss of just two wickets, it is not an upset. It shows the truth of Pakistan’s cricket and their campaign, whether you take batting, bowling or fielding. You will not say that it is an upset just because Pakistan are the higher-ranked team. Afghanistan have been playing a lot better cricket than Pakistan in this tournament. I believe it would have been an upset if Pakistan had defeated Afghanistan on this wicket.”
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However, Gautam Gambhir added that Afghanistan had done better than Pakistan in the tournament heading into Monday’s clash as well. Afghanistan also beat England by 69 runs.
“I am giving such a big statement because of the cricket Afghanistan and Pakistan have played in this tournament. Afghanistan scored more runs than Pakistan even against the Indian bowling attack. They defeated England and won here,” he stated.
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“If you remove the New Zealand match, they have been extremely competitive, the sort of bowling attack they have, and the sort of run chase they did. Even India wouldn’t have been able to do a better run chase than this. There couldn’t have been a more clinical performance than this, firstly in bowling and then in batting. Australia, India, New Zealand – all these teams would have been happy with such a run chase,” Gautam Gambhir concluded.
