ICRC T20: Bangladesh fail Afghan challenge

Afghanistan came out on top in a thrilling encounter against hosts Bangladesh by three wickets with five balls to spare in the ICRC T20 Tournament for people with physical disabilities.

Batting first after winning the toss, Bangladesh found the going quite tough in the face of tight Afghan bowling at BKSP’s ground no. 3 today.

Both the openers were back in the pavilion before the third over was completed, and the scoreboard read a sorry tale with only six runs scored.

Faisal and Suzaul didn’t really trouble the scorers, and Bangladesh limped to 18 runs in the mandatory power-play overs after the dismissal of Alam for 4.

Amin Uddin, who had some runs under his belt calmly dealt with the early jitters with responsible batting from his end. His knock of 26 runs from 27 balls with four boundaries didn’t set the stage on fire, but built the platform for other batters to score big later in the innings.

Bangladesh’s below-par total was largely put together by Shaharia Shamim, who remained unbeaten on 56 runs, his first fifty in the competition.

Shamim was fortunate to find spinners rolling their arms over during the death overs, and capitalized whenever he could with the long-handle.

When Drupam fell on the 16th over with 86 on the board, Shamim took it to himself to get some quick runs, desperately needed in the context of the match.

In the last two overs, Shamim swung as hard as he could, and got some timely boundaries over the cow-corner. He faced 47 balls, hammered five fours and two towering sixes in his undefeated innings.

Bangladesh limped to 119 in 20 overs for the loss of six wickets, and their opponents were the happier of the two teams heading into the mid-innings break.

Chasing 120 for victory, Afghanistan’s Mohammadullah was in a hurry as he got his team to a rollicking start with a flurry of boundaries.

Even the dismissal of Zubair in the third over for 5 didn’t really affect the scoring rate.

Mohammadullah and Ashraf kept scoring without taking too many risks, but the top-order batters were guilty of throwing of their wickets away when set.

At 61 for 3 after 9.6 overs, the game hung finely in the balance. Afghanistan’s middle order began the gritty fight to the end.

The thirty runs made during the 3rd wicket-partnership made Afghanistan firm favourites to win but things got interesting after the 14th over.

Two wickets for six runs within the space of seven balls got Bangladeshi cricketers optimistic and visibly excited.

Their excitement didn’t last long as Sangar with his 19 runs took his team home with Abdullah Jr at the crease.

Mohammadullah was the star with the bat with 32 runs, struck 2 huge sixes in his innings, and was appointed the Man of the Match.

Drupam was the most successful bowler for Bangladesh with 2 wickets for 19 runs in four overs. Sanaullah, Amin, Nasim and Alam all picked up a wicket each.

Bangladesh will play India in their last match of the group phase.