Sharjah the 31st of August : Afghanistan became the first team to be selected for the Super Four stage of the Asia Cup 2022 with a impressive seven wicket win over Bangladesh in the Group B game at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium in the city of Sharjah on Tuesday.The win for Afghanistan was a result of spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan, while Najibullah Zadran’s six-hitting streak and unbroken relationship of 69 from 5.3 overs with Ibrahim Zadran took Afghanistan home with nine balls left.
After winning the toss and choosing to bat first Bangladesh batters were unable to start for the majority of the match on a sloppy pitch which was a good quantity of grip and twists.
The Afghanistan spin twins Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3/16) and Rashid Khan (3/22) bowled lines and lengths that were tight as well as spun their webs in the powerplay and in middle-overs, respectively.
At the time that Mahmudullah (25 off 27) was dismissed in the 15.4 overs, Bangladesh were 89-6 and it looked like they could fold for less than 100.But, Mosaddek Hossain’s 31-ball 48 and Mehidy’s 12-ball 14 assisted Bangladesh in some way of recovery and brought them to a respectable score of 127/7 in 20 overs.
In pursuit of a respectable target Afghanistan started off with an inexperienced start when Shakib Al Hasan, who was playing his 100th T20I took care of operator Rahmanullah Gurbaz to give Bangladesh some hope.Bangladesh took advantage of the wicket, as runs were crushed.
The spinners were causing all the damage by not offering gratis prizes to Hazratullah Zazai and Ibrahim Zadran was content taking the chase to the end.By eliminating Zazai and Mohammad Nabi in succession, Bangladesh seemed to have taken over the control of the match.Afghanistan were close to of falling as low as 66 in the last 7 after netting only 62 from the initial 13.
Then the addition of a couple of boundaries by Ibrahim Zadran ((42 not out off 41) brought the total down to 52 after the final five overs .That is the time that Najibullah Zadran (43 not out of 17) took over and shocked the bowling team.
In the first 35 runs of the match only one six was hit.However, Najibullah also added six additional smashes through the fence in the following four overs with his slick hitting.Mustafizur was hit with two or three of sixes while Saifuddin also suffered similar fate in the next over when the pacers shook off the spinners’ hard work.
The 18th over of the 18th over pretty effectively ended the match as Afghanistan required only 4 more from the last two innings with Najibullah breaking the ropes a second time to take Afghanistan to an impressive victory in 18.3 overs with seven wickets in the bag.
Brief scores: Bangladesh 127/7 in 20 overs (Mosaddek Hossain 48 not out, Mahmudullah 25; Mujeeb Ur Rahman 3/16, Rashid Khan 3/22) lost to Afghanistan 131-3 in 18.3 overs (Najibullah Zadran 43 not out, Ibrahim Zadran 42 not out, Mosaddek Hossain 1/12) by 7 wickets.
avn/bsk
