Afghanistan tasted their first victory against a Test playing nation as they restricted Bangladesh to 222 to pick up a 32-run win in their Asia Cup match at the Khan Shaheb Osman Ali Stadium in Fatullah on Saturday.
Bangladesh on their wayward-chase, lose openers shortly and then saw the middle order collapse to hand over the win to the Afghans despite some insufficient orderly stands.
The injury-plagued home side missed their star players – Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, Tamim Iqbal—and also did not get full service of Rubel Hossain in their spin attack as he picked up a finger trouble during his first over of the innings.
Their skipper Mushfiqur Rahim was only partially recovered to lead the side, which was also without their ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan who was off the field with a three-match ban for inappropriate gesture.
With 255 runs to chase, Bangladesh lost their openers within the first two overs.
Shapoor Zadran’s length delivery sneaked through Shamsur Rahman’s defence with just one run on board and Hamid Hassan consolidated the Afghan’s good start sending back Anamul Haque lbw for one in the second over.
Home skipper Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque stitched an important third wicket stand of 68 runs, but once they were dismissed the middle order didn’t play sensibly and threw away their wickets.
A controversial decision from the South African umpire Johan Cloete saw Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim getting out lbw for 23 off a flighted delivery from Afghanistan skipper Mohammad Nabi.
Mominul went for a big hit off a Samiullah Shinwari delivery, just after he got his fifty, but missed the ball only to see his stumps rough-and-tumble.
His second ODI fifty came off 71 deliveries with the help of six boundaries.
Nasir Hossain and Naeem Islam held on for a while for the fifth wicket adding 73 runs, only before a spell of insensible cricket.
During the spell, Bangladesh lost Nasir first and then two in the last two deliveries of their batting Powerplay and another in the first delivery of the next over, making it three off three for the Afghans.
Nasir (41) chopped a short length outside off Mirwais Ashraf delivery straight into the hands of Shinwari at backward point in the 39th over after being dropped four times earlier.
Naeem (35), the well settled batsman, was gone in the next over of Hassan. He came down the track and drove a length ball powerfully towards mid-off where Nawroz Mangal dived to his right to complete a spectacular catch.
The next Hassan delivery saw Abdur Razzak gone run out for not.
Shapoor’s first delivery of the next over grazed Arafat Sunny’s (0) gloves on its way to the keeper.
However, Ziaur Rahman gave home crowd some cheerful moments at the fag-end with his three maximums and four fours on the way to a 22-ball 41, before he was out bowled by Nabi.
Finally, Rubel Hossain (17), who came out with stitches on his finger, fell, caught at deep midwicket, letting the visitors script an impressive victory.
Earlier, Afghanistan rode on Asghar Stanikzai and Shinwari’s partnership, put up a challenging total of 254 losing six wickets.
A 164-run sixth wicket partnership between the two dragged the nascent cricketing nation from a despondent 90-5 to the modest total.
Stanikzai was unbeaten on 90 while Shinwari added 81 before he was run out off the second last delivery of their innings.
The visitors, sent in to bat first, got off to a slow start as they lost five wickets to reach 90 after 27 overs.
Bangladesh got their injury list even more expanded in the 11th over of the innings when Sohag Gazi left the field injuring his finger.
However, success came for the hosts in the next over when Mohammad Shahzad (2) had to go, trapped lbw to a slower one from Rubel which came back sharply from outside the off stump.
Karim Sadiq (12) fell next, as he got a leading edge off Sunny’s last delivery of the 12th over which looped straight back to the bowler.
Sunny struck again in his next over, knocking Najibullah Zadran’s stumps. He was on 21.
Mangal was run out for 24 in the 23rd over. Naeem Islam fired a quick throw to send back the seemingly settled batsman.
Afghan skipper Nabi (7) was next to go top edging a Mominul Haque delivery to Nasir Hossain at first slip.
Most of the Afghan batsmen got starts but none of them stayed on the wicket to convert it into a meaningful score before Stanikzai and Shinwari stayed out in the middle for 23 overs.
Bangladeshi spin trio – Razzak, Sunny and Mominul, in absence of Sohag, used good variations in the first 40 overs to stifle the visitors.
But, they lost the plot towards the end and conceded more than what they thought they would.
Stanikzai started off in a slow manner but once he was set, the strokes started to flow. Before that he played second fiddle to Shinwari who was positive from the outset.
Both of them accelerated from the 40th over and added 107 runs in the last ten overs.
Stanikzai smashed three sixes and six fours on the way to his career best innings while Shinwari hit a six and ten fours.
Source: bdnews24
