Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by eight runs in their third and final group stage game of the ongoing Asia Cup at the Sheikh Zayed Stadium in Abu Dhabi on Tuesday, September 16. Bangladesh have secured four points from this phase of the tournament, and are currently ranked second in the Group B standings. They are most likely to qualify for the Super Four stage, pending a clash between leaders Sri Lanka and Afghanistan.
In this match, Bangladesh batted first and put up a decent total of 154-5 in their quota of 20 overs. Openers Saif Hassan (30) and Tanzid Hasan (52) got the Bangla Tigers off to a good start, and it was not until the seventh over that their partnership was broken, after a stand of 63 runs. Skipper Litton Das could only contribute nine runs, but Towhid Hridoy picked up the tempo after his dismissal and scored a vital 26 off just 20 deliveries.
Shamim Hossain, Jaker Ali, and Nurul Hasan tried to chip in with big hits towards the end of the innings, but Hasan was the star of the show with his half-century, which came off just 31 deliveries. He hit four boundaries and three sixes during his stay at the crease, even though Afghanistan’s Noor Ahmad and skipper Rashid Khan picked up a couple of wickets apiece to try and derail their opponents’ batting unit.
In response, the Afghans got off to the worst possible start, losing opener Sediqullah Atal off the first ball of their innings, leg before to left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed. While fellow opener Rahmatullah Gurbaz struck a timely 35 and did his best to overcome the challenges sent forth by the Bangladeshi spinners, he did not receive much help from his teammates. Only Azmatullah Omarzai (30) and Rashid Khan (20) seemed to be in the mood to attempt this run-chase lower down the order.
Omarzai, who is one of the biggest hitters of the cricket ball, impressed in his brief stay at the crease, in which he faced 16 deliveries and struck three gigantic sixes, to go with one boundary. Had he been around for a bit longer, things might have turned in Afghanistan’s favour in this encounter. Alas, he fell in the 16th over of the game, and with him departed all hopes for the Afghans to secure a victory.
For Bangladesh, Nasum Ahmed (who won the Player of the Match award) led the way with figures of 2-11 while Mustafizur Rahman returned with 3-28. Taskin Ahmed and Rishad Hossain also picked up a couple of wickets apiece. Bangladesh will go through to the next round of this tournament if Sri Lanka beat Afghanistan in their next outing. Even if Afghanistan defeat the Lankans, they must do it by a huge margin to boost their net run rate. This will allow them to set up a three-pronged race for the two spots available in the Super Four from this group.
