Mushfiqur Rahim’s men continued their winning spree as they cruised to an eight-wicket victory over Afghanistan in their second match of the Trinidad Quadrangular T20 competition at the Queen’s Park Oval, Port of Spain on Friday night.
It was another rain-interrupted match after they won the first game against Barbados by seven wickets in an 8-over-a-side affair. Friday’s match was reduced to a 15-over-a-side affair following inclement weather.
The Tigers, who are playing the tournament under the banner of BCB XI, were scheduled to play their third and final match against Trinidad & Tobago at the same venue on Saturday night. They will head directly for Sri Lanka today to take part in the ICC World Twenty20 starting from September 18.
In the second match, the Bangladesh spinners did the damage first and then a 76-run opening partnership between Tamim Iqbal and Mohammad Ashraful helped BCB XI to sail to an easy victory as they posted 100 for two with four balls to spare in reply to Afghanistan’s 99 for five.
Tamim was dismissed for a 33-ball 37 that contained two fours and three sixes while Ashraful was undefeated with 47 off 44 balls with the help of four boundaries and a six.
Man-of-the-match Mohammad Nabi grabbed both scalps, also removing Ziaur Rahman for a duck after taking Tamim’s wicket.
Earlier, tight bowling from the Bangladeshi spinners restricted Afghanistan to 99 at the end of fifteen overs. Mashrafe Bin Mortaza was the most expensive, giving away 33 runs in his three-over spell while fellow pacer Shafiul Islam conceded 27 runs in three overs, but the Afghan batsmen struggled to score against the spinners.
Shakib Al Hasan claimed two wickets for 13 runs in three overs while Abdur Razzak took one for 16 but it was Elias Sunny who really had the Afghanistan batsmen in a web, giving away only nine runs in three overs taking one wicket.
Mohammad Shahzad was top-scorer with 29off 25 balls with four boundaries while Nabi added an unbeaten 26 off 20 balls that featured two boundaries.
SCORES IN BRIEF
AFGHANISTAN: 99-5 in 15 overs (Shahzad 29, Nabi 26 not out, Shafiqullah 15, Naib 14 not out, extras 3; Razzak 1-16, Shakib 2-13, Sunny 1-9, Shafiul 1-27)
BCB XI: 100-2 in 14.2 overs (Tamim 37, Ashraful 47 not out, Zia 0, Shakib 5 not out, extras 11; Nabi 2-11)
Result: BCB XI won by eight wickets.
-With The Daily Star input
