World Cup 2019: Security forced to evict fans from stands after clashes during Pakistan-Afghanistan match

What's the story?

Around an hour into the 36th match of ICC Cricket World Cup 2019, a brawl broke out between the fans of Afghanistan and Pakistan in the Carnegie Pavilion Stand. The security personnel had to eject those fans from the stadium at Leeds.

The background

This is the second time Afghanistan and Pakistan have faced each other in England, the first time being the warm-up matches. The stakes for this match are extremely high because Afghanistan had defeated Pakistan in the warm-up match and one more defeat for the Men in Green will dent their chances of making it to the semifinals.

Almost 18,000 fans have come to the stadium to enjoy the clash of the neighbours. However, before the match, some reports emerged that few fans had invaded the stadium by jumping the security walls. They tried to occupy the seats without tickets.

The heart of the matter

Few of them were ejected from stadium by security, many invaded the stadium jumping the wall, occupying seats without tickets. Ugly scenes! Anti sportsmanship by Afghan fans. Disappointing. https://t.co/XKftrpLqDh

— Faizan Lakhani (@faizanlakhani) June 29, 2019

The journalists who were trying to capture the happenings at Headingley were assaulted by the fans. The clash broke out in the second hour of the match which forced the security officials to intervene and take necessary action.

The physical altercations between the fans have not happened at the ICC events in the recent past, however, this incident would force the council to take some action.

Talking about the match between Afghanistan and Pakistan, the Blue Tigers had won the toss and elected to bat first. Shaheen Shah Afridi's double strike rattled the Afghan innings but a good partnership between Asghar Afghan and Ikram Ali Khil stabilized the innings. The Pakistani bowlers bounced back and put Afghanistan in trouble once again.

What's next?

The action in the middle has continued without any interruptions despite the clash. Pakistan will look to chase down the target set by Afghanistan in the 2nd innings.

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