Twitter Reactions: Bangladesh pull off a thrilling win over Afghanistan to stay alive

Afghanistan fell agonisingly short of the target.

By Aditya Gajanan Kukalyekar verified

View : 1.9K

2 Min Read

Bangladesh team
info
Bangladesh team. (Photo Source: GIUSEPPE CACACE/AFP/Getty Images)

Bangladesh and Afghanistan played a thrilling game to stay alive in the ongoing Asia Cup. The latter team fought bravely and fell just three runs short of the target in the end. Mustafizur Rahman was their nemesis as he defended eight runs off the final over with the likes Samiullah Shenwari and Rashid Khan in the middle. But the left-arm pacer had a tad more varieties in his kitty in the end which ended Afghanistan’s hopes to reach the final.

Mohammad Shahzad controlled the chase beautifully after Afghanistan lost a couple of early wickets. He joined hands with Hashmatullah Shahidi who has been in amazing form in this tournament. Both of them took time but made sure that the team doesn’t lose any more wickets. The set template didn’t change for them as Afghanistan tried to keep wickets in hand.

Shahzad got to his half-century as he played sensibly and kept his team abreast with the required run-rate. But an ugly heave from him off Mahmudullah cut short his stint in the middle on 53. The partnerships continued to build though as Shahidi stayed put to his assigned his role and Asghar Afghan took the charge. However, both of them got out at the wrong time but their team’s position was still decent enough to go for a victory.

Shahidi was once again brilliant as he notched up his third consecutive half-century and Afghan scored a valiant 39 after which it came down to Mohammad Nabi and the lower-order to win it for them. It all came down to 18 runs off last two overs and Shakib’s penultimate over was a game-changing one as he went for 10 runs. However, he took Nabi’s wicket to bring it down to eight runs off the last over which Afghanistan failed to get eventually in the end.

Mahmudullah and Kayes save the face

Earlier in the day, Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first in order to put Afghanistan out of their comfort zone. But they continued to start poorly as Nazmul Hossain Shanto couldn’t get going again. The batting order was shuffled by them and Mohammad Mithun was sent in at number three, the move which failed miserably as he was sent back by Mujeeb Ur Rahman.

However, the duo of Liton Das and Mushfiqur Rahim looked set to stitch a big partnership. But the former threw his wicket away with some nonsense kind of a shot off Rashid Khan which triggered a game-changing collapse. Rahim and Shakib Al Hasan were run-out thanks to some hapless calling and they were reduced to 87/5 in no time.

It was all down to Mahmudullah and the latest addition to the squad, Imrul Kayes to resurrect the innings and take the team’s total to some credibility. They batted well, especially the senior pro who took calculative risks and the duo added 128 runs for the sixth wicket stand. But the run-rate was still an issue for them and they needed someone to play a blinder of a knock which never came.

Eventually, Bangladesh posted 249 runs for the loss of seven wickets on the back of the 70s from Mahmudullah and Kayes which were enough in the end.

Here’s how Twitter reacted during the match:

Keep following CricTracker for more news and updates.

Get every cricket updates! Follow Us:

googletelegraminstagramwhatsappyoutubethreadstwitter

Download Our App

For a better experience: Download the CricTracker app from the IOS and Google Play Store
Asia Cup 2023Bangladesh