Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by 2 wickets
With an equation of six off last over Mehidy Hasan Miraz struck a boundary to ease the pressure and the remaining two runs were supposed to be a mere formality.
However, bowler Karim Janat made it interesting by picking up a hattrick as he picked up Mehidy, Taskin Ahmed and Nasum Ahmed in next balls. Shoriful Islam could find a boundary through point in the next ball and Bangladesh won the first first T20 of their two-match series against Afghanistan at the Sylhet International Stadium on Friday.
Shoriul might strike the winning shot but the hero of the match was the batter in the non-striking end, Towhid Hridoy. The 22-year old scored 47 off just 32 balls to chase down the total from a precarious situation.
Bangladesh made a bad start as opener Rony Talukdar got out for four when the score was five. Najmul Hossain got out in an unlucky manner when a Mujeeb ur Rahman delivery ricocheted from body to stumps to dismiss him for 14.
Litton Kumer Das mistimed a pull shot to get out for 18 and as the rain came off Bangladesh were well short of the required rate.
After the resumption captain Shakib al Hasan got out for 19 and Bangladesh were in dire straits with the score of 64-4 in 11th over but two young players- Hridoy and Shamim Patwary resurrected the innings.
They added 73 off just 47 deliveries to tilt the balance to Bangladesh’s favour. The pair struck boundaries in between their sensible running between the wickets to form the match winning stand.
Shamim ultimately got out while trying a big shot against Afghan skipper Rashid Khan but the previous over bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi yielded 16 runs and made the chase easy before the drama of the final over.
Earlier in the day, after losing the toss the visitors were reduced to 52-4 in the eighth over by losing regular wickets but Mohammad Nabi scored an unbeaten 54 off 40 balls to help his side post 154-7 in their stipulated 20 overs.
Nabi, who hit six fours and a six, did the repair job with Najibullah (run-a-ball 23) as the pair added 35 off 37 balls. That gave a good launching pad for Azmatullah Omarzai who scored 33 off just 18 balls.
Omarzai struck four sixes and two of them against Shakib al Hasan in the penultimate over but the latter had the last laugh as he got rid of the dangerous batter in the last ball of the over.
But Afghanistan could add 11 more runs in the last over and their late blitz saw 53 runs in the last four overs.
Skipper Shakib got two wickets while Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman got one wicket apiece.