POBNEWS24, Dhaka Aug 31, 2022 : According to Rashid Khan, Mushfiqur Rahim went, Mahmud Ullah came. He hit the first ball he faced on arrival, the ball went to the other side. If you want, this can be considered as a symbolic picture of Bangladesh’s overall batting against Afghanistan. They wanted to do one thing, but the opposite happened.
Before leaving the country to play in the Asia Cup, the slogan of ‘new start’ was heard. In this beginning, where the bazaar in batting was the orchestra of the new day, there the bugle of the old sadness played. Despite having a small boundary on one side of the Sharjah Stadium, he dared to hit the short ball for a six
Did not go to anyone. The batsmen forgot the demands of batting as per the demands of this edition due to the side effects of the disaster at the beginning.
So what happens, happens. Bangladesh’s self-determined limit to win in T20 cricket was at least 170 runs. But they lost seven wickets to pass Tenetoon and accumulated a total of 127 runs on the scoreboard. Certainly not capital to fight for. However, the Bangladeshi bowlers did not give up trying to break the old darkness of batting.
Because he did not quit, the fate of the match was hanging on both sides for a while. In the beginning, even after Mahmud Ullah caught Afghan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz off Shakib Al Hasan, the bowlers did not give up. Rather, they stopped the run, and squeezed the opponent’s batters. Captain Shakib also led from the front. He gave only 13 runs in four overs. When the other two spinners Sheikh Mehdi and Mosaddek Hossain were not able to drive properly, the lack of a third spinner was also felt. But after going down to play, there is no other option. So Shakib had to keep fighting.
Mustafizur Rahman (13 runs in two overs) also gave a great response to that. In his first over, Mohammad Saifuddin (five runs) also bowled in such a way that the captain surely expected better from him in the death overs. But these two pacers messed up in the death over. They bowled haphazardly, and lost the dream of winning Bangladesh even with a small capital. The two ‘Zadrans’ Ibrahim and Najibullah showed the Afghans an easy victory in a match that was waiting for a breathtaking finish. Najibullah, who stormed over Mustafiz and Saif Uddin, finally came to Sharjah as if it rained sixes. With 9 balls remaining, Afghans won all the matches of ‘B’ group by seven wickets in the Super Four. Bangladesh-Sri Lanka match on September 1 in the dream of Super Four
So now the two teams have got the status of the final.
But before that match, Bangladesh created an opportunity to be ahead. It was abandoned in the Mustafiz-Saif duo. Afghans needed 43 runs from 24 balls when Mustafiz came to bowl his third over. Difficult if not impossible in stressful situations. Najibullah grabbed the chance after getting a random Mustafiz. He hit the left-arm pacer twice for a six in that over. 17 runs from the 17th over. In the next over, a more dynamic storm swept over Saif Uddin. Najibullah hit two boundaries with two huge sixes. The game ended with a total of 22 runs from that over. Afghans need just four runs to win in two overs. After that, Najibullah’s sixth six off Mosaddek Hossain was the winning stroke.
Najibullah, who scored an unbeaten 43-run innings with six sixes and one four in just 17 balls, and Ibrahim (42 not out from 41 balls) who made an unbroken partnership of 69 runs, contributed to this victory in no small part. However, just as Najibullah ended the match with devastating batting, Mujib-ur Rahman also broke the backbone of Bangladesh’s batting at the beginning. This mystery spinner opened the bowling and picked up Naeem Sheikh and Enamul Haque as well as Shakib Al Hasan in three overs. After Rashid Khan came in and picked up Mushfiq and Afif Hossain, it was up to Mahmud (25 off 27 balls) and Mosaddek Hossain to deliver the score to save the standard.
Mosaddek did that job well in the 31-ball unbeaten innings of 48 runs, but the collection of the team was within the scope of Najibullah’s sixes! When Mustafiz and Saif Uddin got a little confused, the rain of sixes came down.
