The win against a Full Member side means big: Mohammad Nabi

Pakistan couldn’t, India couldn’t, South Africa couldn’t but Afghanistan has managed to beat Bangladesh at home in quite a convincing manner. They came agonizingly close to victory in the 1st ODI but fell short by 7 runs. In the second match, they made amends as the tailenders Dawlat Zadran and Mirwais Ashraf held the nerves and hit a boundary shot each to take them home in the crunch moments towards the end of the game.

It was not easy, they were hit by early wickets but skipper Asghar Stanikzai and all-rounder Mohammad Nabi took guard and ensured they were on course of the chase. Stanikzai got to his fifty and fell while Nabi was unfortunate to get out on 49 but by then he had done his part having earlier scalped a couple of wickets with the ball. Nabi was awarded the man of the match for his all-round show.

Talking about the team’s celebration which was just handshakes and hugs time and not the usual exults. “We will try to win the series and then we will celebrate,” Nabi said.

The first match was well in their pockets but Bangladesh pulled out an impressive win out of nowhere. They were questioned for it and the all-rounder said they had to win this win this one for the people who backed them. “After we lost the first game, people talked too much: ‘why you lost because you were supposed to win the game. In the end you lost the game,’ they said. From this win they are going to be really happy,”

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“The win against a Full Member side means big for Associate Nations. Afghanistan cricket is improving day by day. The win will give more energy to the people and everyone watching in Afghanistan will be happy from that win.”

Nabi had a great day with the ball; though it wasn’t a high-scoring encounter his figures of 10-3-16-2 were exceptional. After the match, he credited the newly appointed Afghanistan coach Lalchand Rajput and skipper Stanikzai for the change in fortune.

“The plan of the captain and coach was that both left-handed batsmen is coming to open and that I would be bowling from the start. The pitch had moisture.

“We discussed in the meetings that we are going for the win. It worked a lot in the bowling especially the spinners. We just dropped one catch. The boys worked a lot on the planning which helped us win the game,” Nabi said.

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He had a 107-run partnership with Stanikzai which in the end proved to be the difference as they anchored the chase pretty well and saw through the tougher phase.

“The pitch condition was not suitable for batting. It was turning and skidding. The plan was to play until 40 overs and we could just concentrate on singles and doubles, and not hitting boundaries. We knew that in the few overs in the middle when we didn’t hit any boundary, that’s where the partnership was built.

“The experience worked a little, not too much. We didn’t finish well. We threw the wickets away under pressure,” Nabi said.