Afghanistan’s star spinner Mujeeb ur Rahman (3/16) and Rashid Khan (3/22) A careless Bangladesh ran through the batting order to restrict the opposition to 127.
Bangladesh put Afghanistan on the line in 18.3 overs chasing runs with the help of Najibullah’s unbeaten 43 not out for six sixes in 17 balls.
as it happened
Ibrahim Zadran also contributed 42 off 41 balls as he shared an unbeaten 69 off 36 balls with Najibullah.
What a victory! Things went awry but the Afghan Atalan-led duo of Zadran @iamnajibzadran 43* (17… https://t.co/lf7IJo0mmt)
— Afghanistan Cricket Board (@ACBofficials) 1661880241000
With their second win in the same number of matches, Afghanistan also became the first team to qualify for Super 4.
Like Bangladesh, Afghanistan too found it difficult to advance the scoring rate.
Captain Shakib Al Hasan opened the bowling for Bangladesh and came back with impressive figures of 1 for 13 in four overs. Other bowlers were also accurate as the Afghanistan batsmen were not able to get them out.
After the fall of openers Hazratullah Zazai (23) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11), Afghanistan needed 80 runs from the last 10 overs.
With the batsmen struggling to get big hits, it looked like the game would fall to the wire. However, Najibullah’s barrage of sixes quickly changed the course of the game.
It was only fitting that the left-hander ended the game with a six.
Earlier, Mosaddek Hossain (48 not out off 31 balls) was the only Bangladesh batsman who played deftly and saved Bangladesh from blush.
It was the pacers who shook Sri Lanka in Afghanistan’s first match, but the team’s traditional strength, spin, wreaked havoc here as Mujeeb and Rashid took three wickets each.
The spinners had a clear plan to target the stumps and Bangladesh’s batsmen chose to play cross-batted strokes against them, leading to their downfall.
Mujeeb broke the backbone of Bangladesh’s batting by striking thrice in the powerplay. He used the slider effectively to cross the stumps of left-hander Mohammad Naeem (6) before Anamul Haq (5) went for a slog sweep only to be trapped in front of the stumps.
Mujeeb’s third scalp was that of opposition captain Shakib Al Hasan (11), who dropped his stumps while playing a poor shot.
The number one spinner Rashid then joined the party by googling the veteran Mushfiqur Rahim (1). He relieved left-hander Afif Hossain (12 off 15 balls) from the leg-break, putting Bangladesh in serious trouble at 53 for five. The pace with which both the spinners bowled did not give the batsmen time to get off their hands.
Experienced Mahmudullah (25) and Hossain tried to stabilize the innings but the damage was done.
Medium pacer Azmatullah Omerzai was brought into the attack in the 20th over, conceding just seven runs in good performance.