T20 World Cup 2022: Afghanistan bowl five-ball over against Australia as umpires fail to notice

Australia and Afghanistan locked horns in the Super 12 stage of the ICC T20 World Cup 2022 at the Adelaide Oval in Adelaide. The match was a must-win contest for the hosts and defending champions to keep themselves alive in the race of semi-finals.

The Aussies were put to bat first and put up a competitive total of 168/8  on the back of Glenn Maxwell's quickfire 54 off 32 that had six fours and two sixes and Mitchell Marsh's 45 off 30. However, at the start of their innings, Australia became the victim of an umpiring blunder.

In the fourth over of the innings, Afghanistan’s Naveen-ul-Haq took the ball and was up and ready to face the rival batters. Unfortunately enough for the Aussies, Naveen only bowled five balls before the umpire called the end of the over. Interestingly, neither of the two sides spotted the umpiring blunder as the umpires then swiftly moved to the fifth over.

Australia clinch the must-win game 

Australia had their title defence on the line against Afghanistan as they were in search of a victory with a massive margin to improve their net run rate. However, that did not happen as Afghanistan ran the Aussies close, eventually falling only four runs short of the final target. 

Meanwhile, as New Zealand became the first team to qualify from Group 1 to the semi-finals following their win against Ireland on November 4. Australia have tricky scenario in place for their qualification considering their damaged net run rate as they need Sri Lanka to defeat England on November 5 to qualify for the semi-finals.