Afghanistan Defeats Bangladesh in Historic Asia Cup Win

KABUL: (MEP) – In the country’s first victory against a Test-playing nation since national team’s formation in 2001, the Afghan Cricket Team defeated host Bangladesh by 32 runs in their 2014 Asia World Cup match on Saturday night.

Afghanistan finished with 254/6 in 50 overs and Bangladesh 219/9 in 45.6 overs.

For most of Afghanistan’s innings, Bangladesh appeared to have a winning hold on the match, but lost that grasp in the final overs.

Despite the loss of some important wickets, Asghar Stanakzai and Samiullah Shenwari shared an excellent partnership adding 164 and taking Afghanistan from 90/5 in the 27th over to a very respectable 254 at the end of their innings.

The two batsmen played sensibly and held their ground. In the last 10 overs, they blasted ahead making 107 runs. Asghar was run out on the second to last ball of the final over and Stanakzai finished not out for 90 off 103 balls.

High scorers were Najibullah Zadran 21 (36b 2×4 0x6), Nawroz Mangal 24 (33b 3×4 0x6), Samiullah Shenwari 81 (69b 10×4 1×6) and Asghar Stanakzai 90 (103b 6×4 3×6).

Afghanistan’s bowlers handled the Bangladesh innings well despite five catches being dropped. Wickets fell regularly and the Bangladesh run rate stayed low until a last minute rally in the last overs added excitement. The rally gave hope to Bangladesh fans but was not enough in the end.

Wicket takers were Shapoor Zadran 2/27, Mohammad Nabi 3/44, Hamid Hassan 2/26, Mirwais Ashraf 1/51 and Samiullah Shenwari 1/23.

Samiullah Shenwari was the main man for Afghanistan, taking a wicket and contributing 81 runs. He was named player of the match.

“First, I want to thank God. The win was not just mine but it was due to the coach, the team and the manager. I was out there doing my job and trying to do my best, but the victory belongs to everyone,” Shenwari said while accepting the award.

Asghar Stanakzai won the award for the highest scorer of the match.

“We are grateful for the partnership between Shenwari and Stanakzai – they really led us home,” team captain Mohammad Nabi said after the match. “We know the whole country is supporting us and is really happy that we won; the fans love Afghan cricket and we love them, we thank them for their prayers and for their support and we will be trying really hard to win the upcoming matches for our fans, we would like them to pray for us.”