Cricket Highlights, 15 July: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan (1st T20I)

Bangladesh vs Afghanistan (1st T20I)

Bangladesh won a T20I match against Afghanistan 16 months ago. Yesterday, the Tigers defeated Rashid Khan’s team in Sylhet after a long time. Towhid Hridoy and Shamim Hossain contributed the most to this great win. Towhid’s brilliant batting and Shamim’s strike rotation led the hosts to secure a breathtaking 2-wicket victory in a tight match.

On Friday (July 14) at the Sylhet International Stadium, Afghan medium pacer Karim Janat became the cause of fear for the Bangladesh team by picking up a hat-trick in the last over. Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed, and Nasum Ahmed got out one by one. In the end, the Tigers needed 2 runs from 2 balls. Just then, Shoriful Islam confirmed the team’s victory by scoring 4 runs. 

When Bangladesh first lost the top-order batsmen and was under pressure, Towhid and Shamim put up resistance together. At one point they became aggressive. In the end, Towhid remained unbeaten with 47 runs from 32 balls. Shamim Hossain scored 33 runs off 25 balls.

Bangladesh lost Rony Talukdar’s wicket scoring just 5 runs in the run chase. Rony was bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi, scoring 4 runs off 5 balls. After the fall of one wicket, Litton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto tried to resist together. After the duo added 25 runs to the scoreboard, Shanto (14) was bowled by Mujeeb Ur Rahman. 

After losing two wickets, Bangladesh was hoping to get victorious with Litton’s bat. He has been the best batsman for the Tigers for the last few years despite being out of form in recent times. But even today his bat did not respond well. He became Azmatullah’s victim by scoring only 18 runs off 19 balls. After a while, rain interrupted the match. As a result, the game stopped.

After the rain, Shakib started attacking the Afghan bowlers. But he could not last long into the crease. He returned with a catch near the boundary off Fareed Ahmad. The Bangladeshi all-rounder scored 19 runs off 17 balls with the help of 3 fours.

Then two young cricketers, Towhid and Shamim took charge. They were crossing boundaries whenever they got a chance between singles and doubles. Rashid Khan broke their great pair. At that point, Shamim scored 33 runs and left the field after being caught by Rahmanullah Gurbaz.  

But in the end, Towhid left the field after the team reached the port of victory. He was also adjudged Player of the Match. And with this victory, the host Bangladesh advances 1-0 in the two-match series.

Karim Janat took the maximum number of 3 wickets for Afghanistan. Besides, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Rashid Khan, Fareed Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, and Azmatullah Omarzai took 1 wicket each.

Earlier, Afghanistan collected a challenging score of 154 runs after losing 7 wickets in the stipulated 20 overs. Mohammad Nabi scored the highest 54 runs for the team. The second-highest score of 33 runs came from the bat of Azmatullah. Najibullah Zadran scored 23 runs and Rahmanullah scored 16 runs.  

Shakib Al Hasan grabbed the highest number of 2 wickets for Bangladesh. Nasum Ahmed, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, and Mehidy Hasan got one wicket each for the winning side.

Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Scoreboard

Afghanistan – 154/7 (20.0)

Bangladesh – 157/8 (19.5)

Result – Bangladesh won by 2 wickets

Player of the match – Towhid Hridoy

Towhid Hridoy

Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Playing Xis