T20 World Cup: 'I was almost...' - Australia captain Mitchell Marsh reacts to Gulbadin Naib's fake injury

Australia men's T20 team captain Mitchell Marsh has reacted toAfghanistan all-rounder, Gulbadin Naib, feigning injury during the match against Bangladesh. Australia needed Bangladesh to defeat Afghanistan to qualify for the semifinals of the marquee tournament but the team led by Rashid Khan managed to outclass the Bangl Tigers.

The defeat meant that Australia had to return home having lost two matches in the Super 8 stage.

“I was almost in tears laughing and at the end of the day it had no bearing on the game,” Marsh was quoted as saying by cricket.com.

“So we can laugh about it now – but gee, it was funny. It was outstanding (from Gulbadin Naib)," he added.

Prior to Marsh, leg-spinner Adam Zampa had posted an Instagram story, calling Naib's hamstring injury as 'rainstring'.

What did Naib do?

The incident transpired in the 12th over of the match after Afghanistan head coach, Jonathan Trott, standing on the sidelines, instructed the team to slow down the play.

At the time, Bangladesh were two runs behind the Duckworth-Lewis-Stern (DLS) score - meaningAfghanistan would have won the match if no play was possible from thereon.

With rain teeming down, Naib, standing at first slip, went down, clutching his hamstring, stopping the match in the process.As the rain's intensity increased, the players were taken off the pitch before returning to complete the match.

"The coach sends a message out to say Slow it down, slow it down, and the first slip just dives on the ground needlessly. That is unacceptable. Gone off anyway. I get that might have gone off anyway for the rain," commentator Simon Doullsaid on air dissecting the incident.

Quizzed after the match about Gulbadin's faux-injury, captain Rashid Khan said he didn't know what happened to his player.

"Well, I think he had some cramp. I don't know what happened to him. I don't know what's going on, on social media. But, that doesn't matter. It's just an on-field injury. We didn't lose any overs, rain came, and we just went off (the field)," said Rashid.

"It's not something that made any massive difference in the game. We came back on to the field in 5 minutes, and there was no massive difference. For me, it was just an injury and needed some time," he added.

Afghanistan willnow face South Africa in the first semifinal in Trinidad on Wednesday (June 26, local time).

(With inputs from agencies)