Desk Report:
Azmatullah Omarzai was the thorn in Bangladesh’s path to victory at the wicket. He was batting with ease, overcoming the pressure. Taskin Ahmed returned him in the 16th over of the Afghan innings. Taskin’s slower ball went straight to bat. But it hit the top edge of the bat and was caught by Saif Hasan. What joy the bowler Taskin felt then! He shook his fists and shouted. There was joy in the Bangladesh camp.
After returning Omarzai, who scored 30 runs off 16 balls, that joy lasted until the end. Bangladesh kept their hopes of a Super Four alive by winning by 8 runs. The Afghans will play Sri Lanka in their last match in the group stage. If Sri Lanka wins that match, Bangladesh will advance to the Super Four.
Earlier, after winning the toss, Bangladesh batted first and scored 154 runs for 5 wickets on the fifty of Tanzim Hasan Tamim. Although the start was great, the rhythm deteriorated in the middle overs. Bangladesh could not overcome that deficit in the end. If they had overcome it, they might have scored a record score against Afghanistan in T20Is. Bangladesh’s highest score against the Afghans in this edition was 157.
What a mistake Rishad Hossain made in the second over, playing for a target of 154 runs! When Rishad dropped the catch at point, Ibrahim Zadran did not score any runs. Rishad did not have to suffer much in remorse. Ibrahim returned for 5 runs shortly after being caught by Nasum Ahmed. Bangladesh played a specialist bowler less yesterday. Sheikh Mehedi Hasan was left out of the XI to make way for Nurul Hasan Sohan. In the absence of a genuine bowler, two part-time bowlers Saif Hasan and Shamim Patwary combined to score 55 runs in 24 balls (Saif 39 in 18 balls). Even then, the match did not slip out of hand.
After returning to the XI, the pressure created by left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed with excellent bowling from the beginning, even though Saif-Shamim gave runs with both hands in the middle, two experienced pacers Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed did not allow the Afghans to overcome it in the end. The match-winning Nasum returned to Sediqullah Atal and Ibrahim in the powerplay. In the first spell, Nasum took 2 wickets for 7 runs in 3 overs and 1 maiden. Afghanistan could not make use of the powerplay at all, losing 2 wickets in the first 6 overs and scoring 27 runs. Although the two part-time spinners gave runs with their free hands in the middle of the innings, Taskin-Mustafiz overwhelmed the Afghans’ middle and lower order. Taskin announced that the night was theirs after dismissing Azmatullah Omarzai, who had dazzled Bangladesh with 30 runs off 16 balls.
Saif Hasan came in to start the innings with Tanjid Hossain Tamim in place of Parvez Hossain Emon. This change worked; After 12 innings, Bangladesh’s opening pair scored 50 runs. However, the Afghan captain Rashid Khan broke the pair in the very next over after the end of the power play. Saif Hasan (30) was bowled while trying to sweep a low delivery.
After Saif’s departure for 63 runs, Liton Das came to the wicket. However, the captain could not take advantage of the day. Liton (9) was caught out lbw while sweeping a red un delivery by Nur Ahmed. It was Nur Ahmed who returned Tanjid’s 52-run innings from 31 balls. His strike rate for his innings was 167.74.
Shamim Hossain and Zaker Ali Anik, who the team trusted by hitting sixes at the end, disappointed today. Shamim was out for 11 runs from 11 balls. Zaker scored 12* from 13 balls. Nurul Hasan Sohan contributed 12 runs not out from 6 balls in the team’s score of 250.
Noor Ahmed and Rashid Khan took 2 wickets each with the ball. Azmatullah Omarzai took 1 wicket.
