Afghanistan registered their 12th consecutive T20I win after completing a 25-run win over Bangladesh on Sunday, which is also a world record from any international team. With stellar performances from Mohammad Nabi and Mujeeb Ur Rahman, they went past their own record of 11 consecutive wins set in 2017. Nabi played an unbeaten knock of 84 off 54 balls under pressure to help Afghanistan posted 164-6 before Mujeeb returning with the figures of 4-15 to help his team bowl Bangladesh out for 139 in their second match of the tri-nation T20I tournament in Dhaka.
The Afghans started their winning streak in February 2018, when they defeated Zimbabwe twice in two days in Sharjah. They then whitewashed Bangladesh 3-0 in India before a 2-0 away series win against Ireland. They outplayed Ireland in three more games before their two wins in the ongoing tri-series.
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Having set posted a total of 164/6, Mujeeb took three wickets in his opening spell to reduce the hosts to 32/4 before Mahmudullah and Sabbir Rahman attempted to steady the ship with the partnership of 58 runs for the fifth wicket. Gulbadin Naib broke the partnership by removing Mahmudullah before Mujeeb ended Sabbir’s innings at 24 in his final over to surpass his previous best T20I figures of 3-17 against Ireland.
Naib claimed 2-27 while skipper Rashid Khan and left-arm pacer Fareed Malik also took a couple of wickets each. In teh first innings, Nabi recovered Afghans from 40/4 with his fourth T20I fifty, which featured three fours and seven sixes. He made a partnership of 79 runs with Asghar Afghan for the fifth wicket stand.
Nabi and Asghar overshadowed the bowling heroics of Mohammad Saifuddin, who claimed a career-best 4-33. Talking about his innings, Nabi said, “It’s a team effort. Bangladesh bowled brilliantly in the powerplay and that put the pressure on us. I and Asghar planned well and in the last five overs the plan worked.”
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Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan also did well with the ball to claim two wickets for just 18 runs. He said, “I thought we were brilliant in the first 10 overs. They scored more than 100 runs in the last 10 overs, that cost us the game. We didn’t play well with the bat to chase those runs.”
Both Bangladesh and Afghanistan won their respective opening match of the tournament against Zimbabwe.
