Afghanistan fight back to storm into the next round
Mujeeb and Rashid were stars with the ball, before Najibullah and Ibrahim stunned Bangladesh in the chase
Mujeeb and Rashid were stars with the ball, before Najibullah and Ibrahim stunned Bangladesh in the chase
Scorer: @Thilak_Rama | Commentator: Madushka Balasuriya
And on that note on behalf of Hemant and Thilak, it's goodbye. Thanks for tuning in, and be sure to join us again tomorrow as India will be in action against Hong Kong.
Player of the match Mujeeb Ur Rahman: "My strength is bowling with the new ball, in Dubai I didn't get the chance. I always prefer to bowl in the powerplay. My whole plan was to bowl wicket to wicket and it worked for me."
Winning captain Mohammed Nabi: "Everyone knows Rashid and Mujeeb are world class spinners, that's why we were in the game in the first 10 overs. We were ahead of the game cos we got early wickets. Everyone knows we have power hitters in the death. That's we made sure not to lose early wickets, so that our power hitters could finish the game."
Catch of the Match goes to Ibrahim Zadran for his take to dismiss Mahmudullah.
Losing captain Shakib Al Hasan: "Yes it was always tough when you lose four wickets in the first 7,8 overs. But I thought the bowlers bowled exceptionally well to get us back into the game. Credit to Afghanistan though they played really well. We know that Najibullah is a dangerous player. On a wicket like this we thought we had the game, but credit to how they batted."
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Vinay : "Amazing! fantabulous! Zadrans! Afghans! Superlative effort twice in a row now. I don't want to jinx it but watch out India and watch out Pakistan. This could very well be the tournament of Afghans. Simply astounding :-)"
Tushar Pabbi: "Afghanistan were at 65 after 14 overs, ended at 131 in 18.3 overs, doubled the score in 4.3 overs. Power hitting."
Najibullah Zadran: "The wicket was coming a bit low. I looked to hit it straight, and just play my natural game." Not a man of many words, but who needs 'em eh when you can hit like that?
10.37pm Well! Think we all need a breather after that. What a display of power hitting at the death from this pair of Zadrans, who from a position of quite some strife absolutely obliterated the Bangladeshi bowlers, to turn the game on its head and secure a place in the next round. It was a 69-run partnership off just 36 deliveries, after Bangladesh had seemingly fought back into a match-winning position. In the end it was a consummate all-round performance from Afghanistan, as their bowlers had earlier done well to strangle the Bangladeshi batters for large parts of their innings. Then with the bat, they weathered some tight work from the Bangladesh spinners, before targeting the seamers to up the scoring rate and take the win.
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