Thus read the telling stat of the first-ever international game in Dehradun: Afghanistan scored 52 runs off the final three overs. That meant, the ‘hosts’ achieved a total of 167, 45 more than what Bangladesh could manage, who had the unenviable task of having to contend with a spin troika of Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Rashid Khan and went 14 for 5 from their last three to concede a 1-0 lead to their hosts.
The death overs would be an accurate place for Bangladesh to begin the post-mortem of their defeat for it was when they allowed Samiullah Shenwari (36 off 18) and Shafiqullah Shafiq (24 off 8) to suckerpunch them to a corner from where they never recovered.
Things had been going well until then for Shakib Al Hasan, who after winning the toss stuck to the doctrine of electing to chase. Despite getting contributions from each of their top-three, Afghanistan struggled to kick on. When Mahmudullah nabbed Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi in the 14th over, the hosts had only 91 on the board and struggling to make a match of it.
Then the tide turned. Shenwari played himself, scoring just a six and a four off his first 12 balls. He targeted the 18th over bowled by Abu Jayed to turbo charge the innings. He muscled a six over deep extra cover and followed that with a thump over the bowler’s head for six. After a missed upper-cut, he hit another four and a six before holing out to deep midwicket. Abul Hasan, drafted into the squad and the playing XI as Mustafizur’s replacement, bowled a forgettable final over himself, conceding two sixes to Shafiqullah and another to Rashid Khan as Afghanistan ended with a flourish.
Bangladesh possess the batting quality to chase such totals, but their fortunes on the night heavily depended on an effective Rashid Khan management strategy. Afghanistan sprung another surprise. They held back their talisman for the second half of the chase, opting to play instead with the spin of Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi. The ploy clicked with the duo sending back both Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan inside four overs. Liton Das helped stage a mini-recovery of sorts with an enterprising 20-ball 30 that took the score 80 for 3 at the 10-over mark before Rashid arrived.
Off his first ball, Mushfiqur opted for a strange reverse sweep ala Robin Uthappa and lost his stumps. Sabbir Rahman walked in, the first ball, a googly, struck his pads. He walked out. Bangladesh slipped to 80 for 5 and into freefall. Mahmudullah attempted to reduce the margin of the defeat with a gamely 29 but given the fickle nature of the lower-order, Rashid wasn’t even required to bowl his fourth over, the 20th off the innings.
Brief Scores:
Afghanistan 167/8 in 20 overs: (Mohammad Shahzad 40, Samiullah Shenwari 36; Mahmudullah 2-1, Abul Hasan 2-40) beat
Bangladesh 122 in 19 overs: (Liton Das 30, Mahmudullah 29; Rashid Khan 3-13, Shapoor Zadran 3-40) by 45 runs.
