New Delhi: Star Afghanistan leg-spinner Rashid Khan on Saturday apologised to the fans back home and all around the world after their teams five-wicket loss against Pakistan in the ongoing Men’s T20 World Cup.
Captain Babar Azam’s fighting fifty (51 off 47) and Asif Ali’s cameo (25 off 7) powered Pakistan to a convincing five-wicket win over Afghanistan in a Super 12 match at the Dubai International Cricket Stadium on Friday.
While apologising to the Afghan cricket fans, the leg-spinner said the team was not able to give them something to cheer about.
“Sorry to all the fans back home and all around the world not giving you victory to celebrate and bring smiles on your faces,” Rashid Khan wrote on Twitter.
“BUT your support and prayers will be important for the rest of the games. AFGHANISTAN ZINDABAD,” he added.
Though Afghanistan lost the match, Rashid bagged the wickets of Md Hafeez, Babar Azam, and became the latest entrant in the 100 wickets c’ub in men’s T20 Internationals. Overall, he became only the fourth man, after Tim Southee, Shakib Al Hasan, and Lasith Malinga, to achieve this milestone.
“Thank you, everyone, for your messages 100th T20 international wkts,” said the spinner while thanking his fans.
The 23-year old made his debut only in 2015 and is the quickest to the landmark in terms of matches and time. It needed him only 53 T20Is and six years to reach the century. Malinga had done it in 76 matches whereas Shakib and Southee, who also completed 100 wickets during this tournament against Pakistan, needed 84 matches each.
Afghanistan will face Namibia in their third Super 12 match of the T20 World Cup at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium on Sunday.