World cup 2015 Match 7 review: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan; Bangladesh crush Afghanistan on World cup debut

World cup 2015 Match 7 review: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan; Bangladesh crush Afghanistan on World cup debut

This match was supposed to be a fight between minnows. One capable of giving a big teams enough scare and another playing their first World cup match.

Afghanistan bowled first after Bangladesh chose to bat on a flat pitch at Manuka Oval in Canberra.
Their start was slow as they limped to 47 runs in their first 14 overs when Tamim Iqbal fell for 19 runs and Anamul Haque followed soon for 29 runs. Bangladesh was 119/4 when Shakib Al Hasan (63) and Mushfiqur Rahim (71) came together and stitched a 114 runs partnership to take Bangladesh to a respectable position. Bangladesh ended up making 267 runs for the loss of 10 wickets in their 50 overs.

The bowling stars for Afghanistan were Shapoor Zadran who took 20/2 in his 7 overs and Mirwais Ashraf who took 32/2 in his 9. Ashraf also took the first ever World cup wicket for Afghanistan when he dismissed Tamim Iqbal caught by keeper Afsar Zazai.

Afghan batting crumbled as soon as they began when they lost Javed Ahmadi, Nowroz Mangal and Asghar Stanikzai for 3 runs on the board. They saw some recovery from Samiullah Shenwari and Mohammad Nabi, but when Shenwari was run out for 42, Afghanistan slipped to 78/5. Eventually Bangladesh started to tighten the screws on the Afghan batsmen and they caved in to the pressure applied by the bowlers.

Mahmuddulah gave away just 31 runs in his 8 overs and Captain Masrafe Mortaza took 3 wickets for 20 runs off his 7 overs. Afghanistan was dismissed for 162 runs in the 43rd over.

Mushfiqur Rahim got the Man of the match for his important 71 runs.

Brief Scores:
Bangladesh 267/10 (M Rahim 71, S Al Hasan 63; S Zadran 20/2) beat Afghanistan 162/10 (M Nabi 44, S Shenwari 42; M Mortaza 20/3) by 105 runs.