A fine performance from the spinners and an impactful cameo from Najibullah Zadran helped Afghanistan record a seven-wicket win over Bangladesh in the Asia Cup in Sharjah on Tuesday.
Afghanistan's star spinners Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3/16) and Rashid Khan (3/22) ran through a reckless Bangladesh batting line-up to𒆙 restrict the opposit🌳ion to 127.
Bangladesh stifled Afghanistan in the run chase before Najib🐷ullah's belligerent 43 not out off 17 balls, comprising six sixes, got his team over the line in 18.3 overs.
Ibrahim Zadran also contributed with 42 off 41 balls as he shared an unbeaten 69-run stand off 𒁃36 balls with Najibullah.
With the🐓❀ir second win in as many games, Afghanistan also became the first team to qualify for the Super 4s.
Like Bangladesh, Afgha🌠nistan too found it hard to push the scorin꧒g rate.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan opened the bowling for Bangladesh and returned with imprꦛessive figures of 1 for 13 in four overs. The otherℱ bowlers too were accurate with Afghanistan batters not able to put them away.
After the fall of openers Hazratullah Zazai (23) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (11), Afghanistan foun💦d themselves needing 80 off the last 10 overs.
With the batters struggling to find the big hit🐭s, it seemed the game would go down to the wire. However, a 🍸barrage of sixes from Najibullah quickly change the course of the game.
It was only fitting𒆙 tha🎐t the left-hander finished the game with a six.
Earlier, Mossadek﷽ Hossain (48 not out off 31 balls) was the sole Bangladesh batter who played smartly and saved Bangladesh the blushes.
It was the pacers who rocked Sri Lanka in Afghanistan's earlier match but the team's traditional strength, the spin, wreaked ha♎voc here as Mujeeb and Rashid shared three wickets each.
The spinners had a clear plan to target the stumps and Bangladesh batt🍃ers chose to play cross-batted strokes against them, leading to their downfall.
Mujeeb broke the backbone of Bangladesh batting by striking thric𝓀e in the powerplay. He used the slider effectively to get through left-handed Mohammad Naim's (6) stumps before Anamul Haque (5) went for the slog sweep only to be trapped in front of the stumps.
Mujeeb's third scalp was of opposition skipper Shakib Al Hasa𝔍n (11) who 🍃played a poor shot to see his stumps dislodged.
Number one spinner Rashid then joined the party by removing the seasoned Mushfiqur Rahim (1) with a googly. He got rid of left-handed Af♍if Hussain (12 off 15 balls) with a leg-break, leaving Bangladesh in dire straits at 53 for five. The quick pace both the spinners bowl at did not give the batters time to free their arꦗms.
The experienced Mahmudullah (25) and H🌳ossain tried 🐭to stabilise the innings but the damage was already done.
Medium pacer Azam🐭atullah Omarzai was brought into the attack in the 20th over in which he did well to concede just seven runs.
