Bangladesh and Afghanistan squared off at the Rose Bowl, Southampton, for match 31 of the ICC Cricket World Cup. Afghanistan entered this match with no possibility of making it into the semifinals having lost all 6 matches in the tournament so far. Gulbadin Naib won the Toss and chose to field first surprisingly.
With Tamim Iqbal and Liton Das, Bangladesh had a good beginning. Mujeeb Ur Rahman, however, drew first blood in the fifth over having Liton caught in a brief cover. Bangladesh were 23/1 when Liton walked back. The innings was then steadied by Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal with a 59-run partnership. Tamim looked up at the ante when in the 17th over, Mohammad Nabi castled him. Shakib then confronted a fear as he was given out LBW off Rashid on the very next delivery, but he survived after the review.
Then Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah joined forces to assist negotiate middle overs. They added 56 runs together during which Mushfiqur, with a six in the 37th over, picked up his fifty. Naib finally broke the partnership in the 43rd over when Nabi was picked out by Mahmudullah.
Then Mushfiqur was joined by Mosaddek Hossain and the duo raised the scoring level together. They scored 44 runs from 33 balls. In the penultimate over, Dawlat Zadran finally dismissed Mushfiqur. He came back with 83 runs off 87 balls. On the final delivery of the innings, Mosaddek (35 off 24 balls) was dismissed but helped Bangladesh achieve a dominant total of 262/7 on a difficult surface.
With their openers scoring 49 runs off 65 balls, Afghanistan got off to a nice start. Shakib, who got Rahmat Shah caught out (24 out of 35 balls) in the 11th over, finally broke the opening stand. After that, Gulbadin Naib and Hashmatullah Shahidi partnered and scored at a very slow rate with just 30 off 60 balls. Then Mosaddek was brought to the attack, and in the 21st over he got Shahidi stumped. With just 11 off 31 balls, Shahidi came back. When Shahidi walked back, Afghanistan was 79/2.
With former captain Asghar Afghan and current skipper Naib at the crease, Afghanistan began to rebuild again. Shakib then came back for his second spell and in the 29th over he got rid of Naib (47 off 75 balls) and Mohammad Nabi (0). He also dismissed Afghan in the 33rd over (20 out of 38 balls) to take the leave Afghanistan deflated.
The rest of the batsmen from Afghanistan couldn’t add much to the total and were all out in 47 overs for 200 runs. On 49 off 51 balls, Shinwari finished unbeaten. For his unique performance with both bat (51) and ball (5/29), Shakib Al Hasan was awarded the Man of the Match. The victory held alive the hopes of Bangladesh to make the semi-finals.
