Hosts Bangladesh’s chance of reaching the final of five-nation ICRC Twenty20 tournament for physically challenged took a huge blow when they lost to Afghanistan by three wickets at BKSP on Monday.
In the other match of the day, Pakistan sealed their final berth by beating their arch-rivals India by 43 runs. Bangladeshi were off to a poor start reaching 18-3 after six overs but an unbeaten half-century of Shaharia Mamun helped them recover as they posted 119-6 in their 20 overs.
Mamun, who made 56 off 47 balls, struck five boundaries and two sixes but got little help from others as Amin Uddin and Apurba Kumar Paul were the only other batsmen to have reached double figures by scoring 26 and 19 respectively.
Mahmudullah and Tofail Jr picked up two wickets each for Afghans.
In reply opener Mahmudullah’s 32 gave a good base for Afghans who reached their target with five balls and three wickets to spare, despite losing regular wickets.
Dhrupam Patranabish picked 2-19 while Sana Ullah, Amin Uddin, Alam Khan and Mohammad Nasim got one wicket apiece for the hosts.
After the defeat, Bangladesh must now beat India in their last match and hope Afghanistan beat England if they are to join Pakistan in September 10 final.
In the other match of the day, Pakistan got off to a flyer with 50 runs off just 34 balls in their opening partnership. Opener Hasanain Alam scored 39 Rehan Ghani made 34 with late impetus of Danish Ahmed’s 26 and Nihar Alam’s 20 helped Pakistan reached 174-6, the highest total in the tournament.
India were never close to their target and they were all out for 131 in 19 overs. Fayyaz Ahmed produced a splendid spell of 4-0-14-4 to ensure his team’s victory.
Bangladesh will take on India and England will play against Afghanistan today at BKSP in the last matches of the group stage.
-With New Age input
