SHARJAH: A fighting knock of 84 by Mohammad Nabi followed by a six-wicket show by young off-spinner Allah Mohammad Ghazanfar steered Afgha­nistan to an impressive 92-run victory over Bangla­desh in the first One-day International of the three-match series here at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium on Wednesday.

Chasing 236, Bangla­desh lost a wicket early, but then Soumya Sarkar and captain Najmul Hossain steadied things with a 52-run stand. Najmul continued the good work with Mehidy Hasan but once he fell, it was a procession.

The lower order surrendered and it ended up being a big defeat for the visitors and their wait for a first ODI win in Sharjah continues, 29 years and counting.

It was the spinners who did the trick for Afghanistan. Ghazanfar continued the fine start to his career with a superb 6-26 show which earned him the player of the match award, and was well supported by Rashid Khan and Mohammad Nabi, who got the main wicket of Najmul.

Earlier, Bangladesh pacers ran through the top order of Afghanistan, who had elected to bat first, but Hashmatullah Shahidi, Nabi and the lower order did well to get them to a competitive score which in the end proved to be enough by a big margin.

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi after the win said: “[I am] Quite happy with the performance. It was good and looking forward to the next game. I believed it was enough. We had lost five wickets but when Nabi came, he batted positively and we spoke about 220 would be a good score. The bowlers then did their job.

“The way the spinners bowled was brilliant. He [Ghazanfar] is a special talent and has a good future for Afghanistan. I am very happy with the options we have on the bench. It is unfortunate that we don’t have Ibrahim, he’s the best opener in Afghanistan, we missed Mujeeb as well and Gurbaz too could not keep because of an injury,” he added.

Najmul said his team did not execute properly.

“We started well in the first 15-20 overs. But we didn’t execute our plans in the middle overs. Nabi batted brilliantly. We didn’t need to attack more. The wicket had enough help for the bowlers. I think Shahidi and Nabi batted really well,” he said.

“Afghanistan always have mystery spinners and he [Ghazanfar] bowled really well. The preparation was brilliant but today was not our day and hopefully we can turn it around.”

Published in Dawn, November 7th, 2024