World Cup 2019: ICC trolls Mohammad Shahzad on Twitter only to delete it later

It’s been a sluggish start to the 2019 World Cup. All the games played so far have all been lopsided with the latest one being the game between Afghanistan and Australia. The Aaron Finch-led side was too hot to handle for Afghanistan who fought hard but it wasn’t enough.

After opting to bat first, Afghanistan lost both their openers inside the first two overs as Mitchell Starc and Pat Cummins sent them back for a duck each. Rahmat Shah steadied the ship but it was Najibullah Zadran’s half-century along with quickfire knocks from skipper Gulbadin Naib and Rashid Khan that pushed the score over 200.

In reply, Australia had little problem in chasing down a modest 208. On his international comeback, David Warner struck an unbeaten 89 to steer the defending champions home with 15.1 overs to spare. The left-handed opener did have a scratchy start but he hung in there and registered a confidence-boosting knock. Aaron Finch scored a fifty as well as Australia opened their account in this World Cup.

Mohammad Shahzad trolled by ICC who later deleted the tweet

Defending 208 was never going to be easy for Afghanistan. However, they made things difficult for themselves as they fielded poorly and Mohammad Shahzad was also in the limelight for his glovework. The 32-year-old wicket-keeper was sloppy behind the stumps and let go quite a few through as Afghanistan failed to create any sort of pressure in their defence.

There was one moment when Shahzad missed an opportunity to stump David Warner off the bowling of Mohammad Nabi (in the 13th over). Warner was batting on 20 when the incident took place. He chopped the second delivery of the 13th over and was not aware where the ball had gone. Shahzad was late to react and while attempting to break the stumps, lost balance and fell away.

The ICC Twitter handle posted the picture of Shahzad falling down and Warner looking on. The caption read, “This photo belongs in a museum #AFGvAUS #CWC19”. However, within a few minutes, the post was deleted.