Afghanistan beat Bangladesh in Sharjah by seven wickets to make their way into Super 4 round of the Asia Cup.
In a tense chase against Bangladesh, Najibullah Zadran’s fiery innings of just 17 balls took Afghanistan to victory with nine balls to spare.
Afghanistan was seemed to be struggling in the first half of their innings where they could only score 48 for 2 in ten overs.
With 61 runs needed of 31 balls, an unbroken partnership between Najibullah and Ibrahim took the team to an easy victory with nine balls still remaining.
The path to victory was laid by spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan, who picked up three wickets each to reduce Bangladesh to 89 for 6 in the 16th over.
Mosaddek Hossain’s much needed innings of 48 runs off 31 balls took Bangladesh to an honorable total of 127 for 7.
Afghanistan’s road to victory
Mujeeb crumbled Bangladesh’s top order by taking a wicket in each of his first three overs. He hit Mohammad Naim’s leg stump with a carrom ball that passed through a huge bat-pad gap, and then hit Anamul Haque on his back leg as he tried to play a shot that was somewhere between a sweep and a pull.
Shakib Al Hasan tried to hit back and accelerate the innings hitting Naveen-ul-Haq for back-to-back fours, but lost his stumps to a carrom ball while trying to hit big off Mujeeb in the last over of the powerplay.
Mushfiqur Rahim found himself caught with one of the toughest jobs in T20 cricket – facing Rashid with your side 28 for 3 in six overs. It took Rashid just two balls to send him to pavilion by lbw with a googly.
Afif Hossain and Mahmudullah tried to take control of the innings, adding 25 at a run a ball before Rashid struck again. Afif lost his wicket to another googly and was late in bringing his bat down as the ball hugged into his front pad.
Mahmudullah returned to pavilion trying to play a slog sweep to become Rashid’s third victim of the match.
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