Afghanistan emerged victorious in a close clash against Bangladesh in T20 World Cup Super Eights. In the rain effected match, Bangladesh found themselves behind the closing line. After defeating Australia, Afghans got a golden opportunity to reach Semi-finals and they needed to beat Bangladesh to make their dream come true.
They exactly did the same with disciplined bowling after a rather disappointing batting effort. Naveen-ul-Haq and Rashid Khan led Afghan attack to strangle Bangladesh after an aggressive start by Bangla boys. Going into details, Afghanistan decided to stick to their plan of batting first upon winning the toss.
After India won against Australia, even Bangladesh had a chance to qualify for Semi-Finals. They needed to chase the target posted by Afghanistan in 12.5 overs to achieve NRR more than Aussies. Hence, their bowlers restricted Afghan aggressive openers from first ball. Ibrahim Zadran struggled on a slow pitch and scored only 18 runs from 29 balls.
Rahmanullah Gurbaz batted in a more circumspect fashion trying to give another 140-160 score to his side. He scored 43 runs from 55 balls but could not really kick-on in the final overs. Rashid Khan scored 19 runs from 10 balls to take Afghanistan past 110 and they scored 115/5 in 20 overs. Rishad Hossain(3/26), Taskin Ahmed(1/12), Mustafizur Rahman(1/17) took wickets for Bangladesh.
In the chase, Litton Das took on Afghan bowlers from first ball. But Tanzid Hasan(0), Najmul Hossain Shanto(5), Shakib Al Hasan(0) fell trying to hit some bad shots. Every Bangla batter tried to take on Afghan bowlers trying to be ahead in DLS with continuous rain breaks. They wanted to qualify first but later started trying to secure a win.
But Rashid Khan(4/23), Naveen-ul-Haq(4/26), Gulbadin Naib(1/5), Fazalhaq Farooqi(1/15) took wickets at regular intervals to restrict Bangladesh for 105 in 17.5 overs. Litton Das scored 54 runs from 49 balls behind the last man standing. As none of the other batters tried to support him, Bangladesh lost this match. Afghanistan won the match by 8 runs through DLS method and reached Semi-Finals.