Kingstown [St Vincent], June 23 (ANI): After his side's 21-run loss against Afghanistan in the Super Eights of the T20 World Cup 2024, Australia skipper Mitchell Marsh hailed their opponents and said that they were good and outplayed them.

Marsh displayed a sloppy performance against Afghanistan at the Arnos Vale Ground. The Aussie skipper scored 12 runs from nine balls at a strike rate of 133.33. He slammed two fours during his time on the crease. Naveen-ul-Haq dismissed him in the third over of the second inning.

Speaking at the post-match press conference, Marsh said that Afghanistan deserved to win the match. The Aussie skipper also gave credit to the Afghan side for their win on Sunday.

"Afghanistan were really good and they outplayed us and they deserved to win that game. There's a lot of things you can look at, the reality is there's small margins here. When the scores are low, we had an off-one in the field. But yeah, got to give credit where credit is due and Afghanistan was pretty good," Marsh said.

He added that they have a lot of belief in their team. The 32-year-old hailed the Aussie side and said that they are a very good side.

"First things first, recover. We have a lot of belief in our group. We are a very good cricket team. Yes, tonight we had an off night but I guess there's also a positive in the fact that in 36 hours we go again. It's a big game, it will be against India obviously and it's a must-win game. I think if you look back at the short history of this team, I know for a fact that it brings out the best in our guys, so the boys will certainly be up and about for it," he added.

Recapping the match, Australia won the toss and decided to bowl against Afghanistan.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (60 runs from 49 balls, 4 fours and 4 sixes) and Ibrahim Zadran (51 runs from 48 balls, 6 fours) led the Afghan batting side and powered them to 148/6 after the end of the 20 overs. Karim Janat (13 runs from 9 balls, 1 six) and Mohammad Nabi (10 runs from 4 balls, 2 fours) also played a crucial role in the death overs of the first inning.

Pat Cummins led the Aussie bowling attack after he picked up three wickets and gave 28 runs in his four-over spell. Adam Zampa also picked up two wickets and 28 runs in his four-over spell.

During the run chase, Glenn Maxwell (59 runs from 41 balls, 6 fours and 3 sixes) was the only standout batter among his Aussie teammates. However, his knock had to come to an end in the 15th over after Gulbadin Naib picked his wicket.

The Aussie batting lineup failed to stand in front of the Afghan bowling attack and collapsed at 127.

Gulbadin Naib led the Afghan bowling attack after he picked up four wickets and 20 runs in his four-over spell at an economy rate of 5.00. His stupendous performance helped Afghanistan clinch a 21-run win over Australia. (ANI)