Najibullah Zadran smashed an unbeaten 43 off just 17 balls to hand Bangladesh a seven-wicket defeat in their opening Group B match of the Asia Cup at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Tuesday.
Najibullah’s brisk innings, supported by an unbeaten 42 off 41 from Ibrahim Zadran took Afghanistan to 131-3 in 18.3 overs.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan, who was playing his 100th T20I, went for just 13 runs and claimed one wicket but in the end, Bangladesh didn’t have enough runs on the board.
Earlier Mosaddek Hossain’s career-best T20I knock of 48 off 31 balls took Bangladesh to a modest total of 127-7 in 20 overs after they opted to bat first.
Mujeeb ur Rahman and Rashid Khan claimed three wickets each to put Bangladesh in all sorts of trouble.
With the win, Afghanistan have qualified for the Super 4 as Group B champions, as they had earlier won against Sri Lanka by eight wickets.
Now, the final Group B match between Bangladesh and Sri Lanka has turned into a knockout match as the loser of that game will pack up their bags and head home.
Defending a sub-par total, skipper Shakib knew they needed to strike early. So, Shakib opened the attack and the ploy worked as he dismissed the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 11 off 18 balls.
Afghanistan batters were guilty of playing overly cautious, allowing Bangladesh to bowl cheap overs and gradually push the required rate up. Afghanistan was still favourite to chase down the total with wickets in hand.
But in the 10th over Mosaddek Hossain trapped Hazratullah Zazai LBW for 23 off 26 balls and Mohammad Saifuddin struck in his first over to remove Afghan skipper Mohammad Nabi for eight off nine balls to reduce them to 62-3 after 13 overs.
Mahedi then bowled a tight 14th over as the required shot up to over 10 runs per over.
But from there, everything started going south for the Tigers.
Najibullah Zadran smashed half a dozen sixes while Ibrahim Zadran struck four boundaries as their unbroken 69-run stand off 36 balls took Afghanistan home with nine balls in hand.
Earlier, Bangladesh top-order had no answers to Mujeeb ur Rahman, who took three wickets inside the powerplay to reduce Bangladesh to 28-3 after six overs.
The returning Mohammad Naim was outdone by a carom ball from Mujeeb, departing for six off eight balls.
Anamul Haque, who is often seen tonking sixes at practice in videos shared on social media, was trapped LBW by the same bowler for a dogged five off 14 balls.
The umpire had initially ruled in Anamul’s favour, but Afghanistan promptly took the review and the decision had to be reversed.
Skipper Shakib struck two boundaries but missed a straight ball from Mujeeb to depart for 11 off nine balls.
Afghanistan’s talisman Rashid Khan then joined the party, dismissing Mushfiqur Rahim for one in his second ball of the match and trapped Afif Hossain LBW for 12 off 15 balls.
Bangladesh was reeling on 53-5 after 10.3 overs when Mahmudullah and Mosaddek Hossain started a resistance.
The duo rotated the strike more often and took some calculative risks, to slowly revive Bangladesh’s scoring rate, which was below six from the first over.
Mosaddek, who was caught at the boundary once but survived as the fielder’s foot was touching the ropes when the ball was at his hands, was the aggressor of the duo while Mahmudullah was playing a run-a-ball innings.
But the experienced Mahmudullah, inexplicably, tried to hit Rashid for a six in his penultimate ball of the innings, only to get caught for 25 off 27 balls, which also ended the sixth wicket stand on 36 off 31 balls.
Mahedi then joined Mosaddek, who continued batting sensibly, picking his spots to score boundaries and keeping the scoreboard ticking with twos and singles.
Mahedi Hasan chipped in with 14 off 12 before sacrificing his wicket in a run out in the penultimate ball of the innings to give Mosaddek a chance to complete his maiden T20I 50.
But Mosaddek left the ball alone, thinking it was a wide, but the umpire called it a legal delivery.