Highlights
- Najibullah scored these 43 runs at a strike rate of 252.94
- Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by a margin of 7-wickets
- Afghanistan have become the first team to enter Super 4 stage
AFG vs BAN: With two matches gone by, the Asia Cup, so far looks like an event that will be closely contested among the six Asian teams. With the action shifting to Sharjah Cricket Stadium from Dubai International Stadium, Bangladesh and Afghanistan locked horns with each other in what promised to be a blockbuster match. Bangladesh was playing their first match in the Asia Cup whereas the Afghans came into this match with a convincing victory against the Lankans. As expected and as their expertise is, the Afghanistan spinners completely dominated the game. Later some fireworks from Najibullah Zadran helped Afghanistan to register a seven-wicket partnership over Afghanistan.
Afghan spinners such as Mujeeb Ur Rahman (3/16) and Rashid Khan (3/22) were at their complete best and broke the back of the Bangladesh batting lineup. The Shakib Al Hasan-led side could only score 127 but a stellar bowling performance from them ensured that Afghanistan was reeling on 62/3 by the end of 13 overs. Before Bangladesh could even pave their way to victory, Najibullah Zadran walked in and was destined to play a gem of an innings. Displaying high-quality hitting, the Afghanistan batsman ended up scoring 43 off 17 deliveries comprising six sixes. The impact of Zadran's innings was such that the Afghanistan team chased this target down in 18.3 overs.
On the other hand, there was a patient inning of Ibrahim Zadran too who scored 42 off 41 balls and he shared an unbeaten 69-run stand of 36 balls with Najibullah. Afghanistan now has two wins in two games and has entered the super 4 stages. They are the first team in the tournament to register this feat.
Bangladesh XI: Mohammad Naim, Anamul Haque, Shakib Al Hasan(c), Afif Hossain, Mushfiqur Rahim(w), Mosaddek Hossain, Mahmudullah, Mahedi Hasan, Mohammad Saifuddin, Taskin Ahmed, Mustafizur Rahman
Afghanistan XI: Hazratullah Zazai, Rahmanullah Gurbaz(w), Ibrahim Zadran, Najibullah Zadran, Karim Janat, Mohammad Nabi(c), Rashid Khan, Azmatullah Omarzai, Naveen-ul-Haq, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Fazalhaq Farooqi
