Bangladesh’s Liton Das was as consistent as he was in the ODIs. He made a good run with the bat that helped Bangladesh take a 1-0 lead in the two-match T20I series against Afghanistan.
Liton Das scored 60 off 44 balls and pushed the team score to 155 for 5 wickets. The Bangladesh bowlers restricted Afghanistan to 94 after Nasum Ahmed put out a wonderful show in Dhaka.
Bangladesh vs Afghanistan – Match review
Mohammad Naim is set for a stretch run at the top with Tamim Iqbal being out of the T20I side at least till ICC T20 World Cup 2022. Bangladesh faced a difficult and slow start after being asked to bat. Naim fell for just two in the third over. Munim Shahriar, the debutant got out in the fifth over by the spinner Rashid Khan. The power play came to an end for Bangladesh at 37 for 2.
Bangladesh lost Mahmudullah and Shakib between overs 8-11 to fall to 86 for 4. However, they kept fighting and kept the runs flowing. Shakib and Das made 22 off 16 before Mahmudullah partnered with Das to make 33 off 19.
Afif Hossain and Das made 46 off 38 balls as Bangladesh slowly started to put Afghanistan under pressure.
Liton Das’s wicket fell in the 17th over and soon followed Hossain. The lower-order batsmen failed to show any sort of magic as Afghanistan did some damage control by the end.
Read more>> Bangladesh vs Afghanistan 1st T20 Prediction
Bangladesh vs Afghanistan – Afghanistan’s disaster chase
The chase did not work well for the visitors as they could not crack the Bangladesh bowling attack. Opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz fell on the fourth ball of the innings. Hazratullah Zazai and Darwish Rasooli followed the opener two balls later.
Afghan was deep down in the mud at 8 for 3. They went even deeper with the fall of Karim Janat. Nasum Ahmed, the star bowler of the home team ended his overs with his career-best performance, picking up four of the top five batters.
Though Mohammad Nabi and Najibullah Zadran tried to do some resistance to the Bangladesh bowling attack, the match already had slipped away from their hands. Eventually, the hosts made Afghanistan fold to 94 in 17.4 overs. The win was too smooth for Bangladesh as a starter.
Brief Scores
Bangladesh 155/8 in 20 overs (Liton Das 60; Fazalhaq Farooqi 2-27) beat Afghanistan 94 in 17.4 overs (Nasum Ahmed 4-10, Shoriful Islam 3-29) by 61 runs.
