When given the opportunity to bat, the Afghanistan openers got off to a strong start, taking advantage of Bangladesh pacers’ inability to find their rhythm. In their 2023 World Cup opening match on a sluggish Dharamsala surface, Shakib al Hasan (3-30) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (3-25) weaved a web around Afghanistan, limiting them to just 156.However, Afghanistan suddenly fell apart within 38 overs after the spinners got going, from a comfortable 83/1 at one point, mostly as a result of poor shot selection.
On his World Cup debut, Ibrahim Zadran displayed no signs of trepidation and started launching drives early to build the groundwork for a solid opening stand. When speed was unable to make a breakthrough, Bangladesh skipper Shakib came on and hit gold in the ninth over. He threw one up well outside off, which caused the Afghanistan opener to slog away and end up top-edging.
The flow of runs was quickly controlled by spin from both ends, and Shakib struck again in his first spell to quickly and cheaply remove Rahmat Shah. The Afghanistan no. 3 could only grab a top-edge that puffed up while attempting to retrieve a flung up delivery from outside off.
Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi struggled throughout his brief spell, notably against Mehidy Hasan Miraz, while Gurbaz welcomed the return of pace and broke the chains with a boundary off Shoriful Islam. Shahidi danced down the track to take on the offspinner after managing just 3 runs off the 22 balls he faced from him, but he lost his wicket after a laborious 18 runs off 38 deliveries.
After that, Afghanistan quickly began to lose, going 4 for 14 in a span of 32 balls. Due to Mustafizur Rahman’s slower ball, which he misjudged and chopped to deep cover, Gurbaz fell three short of reaching his half-century. When Shakib came back, he picked up his third wicket by taking down Najibullah Zadran’s leg stump. Taskin Ahmed then defeated Mohammed Nabi for the fourth time in 42 ODI deliveries.
Azmatullah Omarzai relieved some strain by hitting three boundaries in the following two overs to get Afghanistan to 150, but Mehidy broke through Rashid Khan’s defenses at the other end to put an end to any late comeback chances. When he had Mujeeb out for an unsuccessful wild slog off a full delivery, he added his third wicket. Shoriful put an end to the match for Bangladesh, dismissing Omarzai and Naveen-ul-Haq on each side of that decision to make his team’s pursuit reasonably simple.
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