Afghanistan Won 115 to 5 (Gurbaz 43, Rishad 3-26) Bangladesh 105 runs by 8 points via DLS (Litton 54*, Rashid 4-23, Naveen 4-26)
The two teams and Australia were competing for a spot in the semi-finals in Group 1 of the Super Eight, and rain added to the drama. The last hour was a cat-and-mouse game. There was a moment when Bangladesh overtook Afghanistan on a DLS par score, but the latter came back to take the lead by taking a wicket.
Drama after the second rain period
Bangladesh needed to chase down the original target of 116 runs in 12.1 overs, beating Australia and Afghanistan to advance to the semi-finals. The chase was delayed by 30 minutes due to 20 minutes of heavy rain. Therefore, the shortness of the match was disadvantageous for Bangladesh.
But after the second rain, Bangladesh sent mixed signals. Litton attacked Naveen, but Soumya Sarkar fell as he tried to attack Rashid. Tawhid Hridoi’s danger against Mohammad Nabi included a dropped catch, but he also emptied out against Rashid. But when Litton hit Rashid for four in a row – first through mid-off and then through slip – Bangladesh looked on track to hunt down the target for the qualifiers.
But soon Mahmudullah’s indecisiveness and Rishad Hossain’s adventurousness saw them fall to 80 for 7 after 11 overs. Then the rain clouds returned and continued to hover around the pitch, constantly photographing the DLS benchmark for the rest of the night.
In the face of increasing pressure, Litton remained seemingly calm. He had an unforgettable performance in the T20Is in 2024, batting below 100 and putting his place in Bangladesh under the scanner. But he started with purpose and kept their hopes of finishing with a win in the T20 World Cup alive. But that was not to be.
Naveen’s new ball burst hits Bangladesh
Naveen’s first over was expensive as Litton scored four and six. Najmul Hossain Shanto then bowled the ball over midwicket in the second over. But with deep midwicket, Naveen once again bowled the ball at an angle to Shanto, who picked the fielder from there. Naveen then straightened the next ball, caught the lead edge of Shakib Al Hasan and took the return catch, giving Bangladesh a 23-3 win.
Afghanistan is steady but slow
One of the things that worked in the opening match against Afghanistan at this World Cup was an uninspiring start. Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran were true to form and took few chances not only in the first 10 overs but also inside the powerplay. They finished the powerplay at 0 for 27 and were 0 for 58 from 10 overs.
This was Gurbaz and Ibrahim’s fourth fifty partnership, the most in a T20 World Cup. There were only 15 attacking attempts in the first 10 overs, and that too on a surface that would slow down and become dewy later.
Rishad leads the pressure on Bangladesh
When Rishad was brought on in the ninth over, the wind blew diagonally from right to left, which was his natural direction of spin. He immediately beat Ibrahim’s outside edge, then used the bounce in the second over to catch the same batsman’s leading edge at long-off.
Gurbaz attacked Rishad in the third over. He first hit one over cover point to end a 38 legal ball phase with no fours, and then swept another four through the back square leg area. But Rishad had the last laugh in the last over when Gurbaz was lurking at deep cover. A couple of balls later he forced Gulbadin Naib to misdirect a slice towards cover point. Naib sprinted from the deep and if not for Sarkar, who jumped forward nearly 30 meters from the circle, he might have escaped. And just like that, Afghanistan conceded their early advantage, slipping from 0 for 59 to 4 for 89.
Rashid’s intervention
Rashid went in at 93 for 5 with just 14 balls remaining. He faced 10 of them, attempted offensive shots on 9 of them, and finished with 19. He hit three sixes, two of them in the last over bowled by Tanzim Hasan Saqib. He generally made good use of the willow, except on one occasion when he threw it at his partner Karim Janat. It was the last over of the innings and Rashid wanted a second run to keep the strike but Janat denied it. Despite this, he helped Afghanistan score 22 runs off the last 14 balls, and the opening of the skies in Kingstown helped them get a fighting total.
Afghanistan faced 66 dot balls during their innings, the third most by a team with five or fewer wickets lost in men’s T20Is, ball-by-ball records available via ESPNcricinfo. But it did not come back to haunt the Afghans, who successfully maintained a successful gun defense at St. Vincent.
S Sudarshanan is a sub-editor at ESPNcricinfo. @Sudarshanan7
