Before Najibullah Zadran’s aggressive 43 not out off 17 balls, which included six sixes, helped his team cross the finish line in 18.3 overs, Bangladesh muzzled Afghanistan in the run chase.
At the Asia Cup on Tuesday in Sharjah, Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets thanks to a strong spinners’ performance and a memorable cameo from Najibullah Zadran. Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3/16) and Rashid Khan (3/22) of Afghanistan’s star spinners destroyed a careless Bangladesh batting order to reduce the opposition to 127. Before Najibullah’s aggressive 43 not out off 17 balls, which included six sixes, led his team over the finish line in 18.3 overs, Bangladesh muzzled Afghanistan in the run chase.
As part of an unbroken 69-run stand off 36 balls with Najibullah, Ibrahim Zadran also contributed with 42 off 41 balls.
Afghanistan won their second game in a row, and they also became the first group to earn a spot in the Super 4. Afghanistan experienced similar difficulties pushing the scoring rate as Bangladesh did.
Shakib Al Hasan, the captain of Bangladesh, began bowling first and finished with impressive figures of 1 for 13 in four overs. The other bowlers were also accurate, making it difficult for the Afghan batters to score against them.
Afghanistan needed 80 runs off the final 10 overs after losing their openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11), who fell for 23, and Hazratullah Zazai (23).
It appeared that the game would go down to the wire because the batters were finding it difficult to get big hits. However, Najibullah quickly alters the game’s trajectory with a barrage of sixes.
It was only fitting that the left-hander scored six runs to end the game.
Earlier, Mossadek Hossain was the only Bangladeshi batter to play shrewdly and spare his country’s face (48 not out off 31 balls).
However, the team’s traditional strength, the spin, wreaked havoc here as Mujeeb and Rashid shared three wickets each. In Afghanistan’s earlier game, it was the pacers who rocked Sri Lanka. The Bangladesh batters decided to play cross-batted strokes against the spinners, which ultimately proved to be their undoing. The spinners had a clear plan to target the stumps.
Mujeeb struck three times during the powerplay, shattering the foundation of Bangladesh’s batting. Before Anamul Haque (5) attempted the slog sweep and was unsuccessfully trapped in front of the stumps, he successfully used the slider to get through the left-handed Mohammad Naim’s (6) stumps.
Shakib Al Hasan, the opposition’s captain, was Mujeeb’s third victim. Shakib played a poor shot, which caused his stumps to fall out.
The experienced Mushfiqur Rahim (1) was then eliminated by number one spinner Rashid using a googly. With a leg-break, he dismissed left-handed Afif Hussain (12 off 15 balls), leaving Bangladesh in terrible shape at 53 for five. The batters did not have time to free their arms due to the quick pace at which both spinners bowled.
The innings was stabilised by the seasoned Mahmudullah (25) and Hossain, but the damage had already been done.
In the 20th over, medium-pacer Azamatullah Omarzai entered the game, and he did well to allow just seven runs.