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Afghanistan’s middle order crumbled again as they failed to put up a fight against Shakib Al Hasan-led Bangladesh in their ODI World Cup 2023 opener. Afghanistan lost eight wickets for just 44 runs and were bowled out for 156. Afghanistan bowlers did not have much to defend and despite taking early wickets they lost the match by six wickets with plenty of overs left in the innings.
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Earlier, Shakib won the toss and opted to bowl first. Afghanistan openers got their side off to a decent start. Mustafizur Rahman Shakib got the breakthrough in the ninth over. Ibrahim Zadran fell after scoring 22 runs. Rahmat Shah and skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi departed for identical scores after doing the hard yards.
Mustafizur Rahman returned to stop Rahmanullah Gurbaz from reaching his fifty as he was dismissed for 47. Afghanistan suffered a collapse as they got bowled out for 156 from 37.2 overs. Apart from Azmatullah Omarzai, no batter could score in double digits. Shakib and Mehidy Hasan Miraz took three wickets each.
In the run chase, Tanzid Hasan got run out for a single-digit score. In the seventh over, Litton Das got bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi. The two dropped chances led to Mehidy Hasan Miraz and in-form Najmul Hossain Shanto sharing a 97-run partnership for the third wicket to take Bangladesh to the doorstep of victory. Naveen-ul-Haq dismissed Miraz but not before he had scored 57 runs. Skipper Shakib got dismissed in the 34th over but it was a consolation wicket. Shanto remained unbeaten for 59 off 83 balls as Bangladesh got over the line with 15.2 overs to spare.
Afghanistan skipper Shahidi blamed poor shot selection for the batting collapse as he said in the post-match presentation, “We had a good start, but we had bad shot selections after that. I think we fought well, but the score wasn't good enough. Looking forward to the next game. Need to learn from our mistakes, need to make sure it doesn't happen again.”
This was Afghanistan's 13th consecutive defeat in ODI World Cups. Also, it was Bangladesh's third ODI win in India. The first time they won on Indian soil was against Kenya in 1998. In 2006, they beat Zimbabwe in Jaipur.
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