Talha Kamal
With brilliant all round bowling effort Bangladesh were able to hold Afghanistan at 138/7 in the dead rubber tri-series T20 match at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram yesterday. Both Bangladesh and Afghanistan have ensured a place in the final of September 24 as Zimbabwe finished the league-phase with only a win.
Bangladesh bowlers made a magnificent comeback in the game after Afghanistan had started off brilliantly. The two openers, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Hazratullah Zazai, gave the visitors a flying start, stitching together a 75-run opening stand. However, after that it was all Bangladesh as they restricted Afghanistan to a mere low total.
After winning the toss, Tigers skipper Shakib Al Hasan opted to bowl first. From the last match’s squad, Bangladesh made just one change to their starting eleven. Sabbir Rahman came back in the roster as the 19-year-old leg spinner Aminul Islam was ruled out before the match due to injury.
To decision to bowl first, did not seem fruitful as Bangladesh were off to a poor start. An early life was granted to Afghan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz, when Mahmudullah dropped his catch during second over of the match. After that, both openers started hitting the ball in all parts of the ground. After the end of batting powerplay, Afghans scored 42 without any loss of wickets.
Bangladesh finally broke the deadlock and got two wickets in quick succession through youngster Afif Hossain, who got first rid of danger-man Hazratullah Zazai and in the same over dismissed Asghar Afghan for a duck leaving Afghanistan at 75/2 after 10 overs. Before his departure Zazai played a good knock of 35-ball 47.
After a bright start Afghans were finding it difficult to get their rhythm going in the batting. They lost three more wickets before crossing the 100-run mark. First, Mustafizur caught and bowled opener Rahmanullah. Then Shakib tricked danger-man Nabi and got his wicket through LBW. Gulbadin Naib came in and he was run out, leaving Afghanistan at 96/5 after 13.2 overs.
Afghanistan were in deep trouble and they were not able to overcome that. In the end, Shafiqullah and skipper Rashid Khan tried to finish on a high for the Afghans. But they could not do much damage. They had a 24-run partnership at the end. For Bangladesh, Afif Hossain was pick of the bowlers as he scalped two wickets. Shakib Al Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Mustafizur and Shafiul Islam bagged one wicket each.
