England were looking at an unexpected thrashing. Harry Brook was their last hope amidst a dismal performance from the much-talked about batting order.
England needed 116 runs in a little over 15 overs with three wickets in hand, when Mujeeb ur Rahman dismissed Brook for 66.
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After the eighth wicket fell, the fans were just waiting for the final two. The DJ asked “jeetega bhai jeetega?” – which is a typical Hindi idiom – the crowd responded with “Afghanistan jeetega”.
Afghanistan, for once, must have felt like they are playing at their home ground. Rahmanullah Gurbaz echoed the view.
“We always say that India is our second home. We love the crowd and they give a lot of love to us, that’s the main reason we love India. And wherever we go, like in every city, they come for us and they cheer for us and support us. So we are really happy with all the crowd and of course, we respect the crowd coming from Afghanistan, from different parts to the ground,” Gurbaz said after the historic win.
Albeit, considering that the Afghanistan team does not play at their home, India can be considered as their home rather than a second home.
The Arun Jaitley Stadium has a capacity to host 48,000 spectators and as Afghanistan took on England on Sunday, approximately 25,000 people had turned up as per the official record.
A section of the crowd would have wanted to see England bat first and tonk Afghan bowlers all over the park. This was not to happen as England elected to bowl first.
Another section would have expected to see an unexpected Afghanistan win. For a majority of time, this seemed plausible and it did happen eventually. Afghan fans were treated in the best manner they could have been. The neutral fans had witnessed one of the best cricketing games ever.
A majority of fans supported Afghanistan. They cheered at their batters scoring boundaries or smashing sixes. In the second innings, every wicket, a close call as well, was cheered with loud roars. A few Afghanistan flags were also seen waving in the first tier of Mohinder Amarnath stand. Only a few shirtless England supporters were spotted in the stands. As if to break the monotony, one South Africa flag was also being waved in the first innings.
Afghanistan players reciprocated to the support and showed extreme grit throughout the match.
Rahmanullah and Ibrahim Zadran started the innings briskly, putting up 79 runs in the powerplay and also stitching a 114-run opening partnership. The crowd was however lukewarm throughout this partnership.
The crowd shouted in patches, cheered at odd boundaries, but went into a slumber as England spinners started to spin a web around Afghanistan batters.
Rashid Khan then came in to bat in the 37th over. As he took the strike, the crowd seemed to have woken up. Chants of “Rashid, Rashid” raised the decibel levels at Kotla. Even the in-house DJ had not been able to enchant the crowd to this extent. That is what stardom is.
One of the fellow personnel in the media box said, “every time Rashid comes to the centre, whether to bat or bowl, it seems someone like Kohli or Rohit has come in”.
And rightly so, Rashid has been the one giving hopes to his team and his nation. He hit a flurry of boundaries early on and helped Afghanistan cross 200 with one of those.
While Rashid is a star entertainer on the field, he made sure to justify his star-like stature off the field. The allrounder has already announced he will be donating his match fee from the World Cup to those affected by earthquaket back home.
The only other time the Kotla crowd made its presence felt was when Naveen-ul-Haq came to bat and subsequently bowl. The chants, however, were of “Kohli, Kohli” to tease Naveen.
The crowd first burst into “Kohli” chants when Naveen came in to bat. But this was short-lived.
The crowd went berserk in the second innings when Naveen took the ball in 12th over. Naveen as well took his time to set the field and had some animated gestures pretending as if he is not heeding the crowd. The act was repeated multiple times throughout Afghanistan’s bowling.
Afghanistan bowling was adamant and never allowed England to free their arms. To start with, they simultaneously created pressure, and hunted in packs. The first five wickets were taken by five different bowlers. The crowd went louder at the fall of every wicket.
However, the crowd saved its best for when Rashid trapped Liam Livingstone plumb in front of the wickets and half the England side was sent back to the pavilion in the 21st over with 117 on board.
Since then, each wicket was cheered in anticipation of an English defeat. Afghanistan were running a little behind the over-rate. But it seemed like England were facing a race against time.
While Mujeeb ur Rahman, who also won player of the match award, did a majority of damage and pushed England on the backfoot, the crowd favourite Rashid bagged the final two wickets.
As Rashid rattled Mark Wood’s stumps, he had both his hands wide open in celebration. The team had already gathered around him.
The crowd had reduced in numbers by then, but the cheers were louder than ever. Theatrical smoke at the boundary lines started to join the crowd in celebrations. A few Afghan fans now removed their shirts and swayed them in the air like Sourav Ganguly for their team had pulled off one of the biggest upsets in world cup history.
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