Sabbir Hossain :Bangladesh won a resounding nine-wicket victory over Afghanistan in their opening Group A match of the ICC World Twenty20 Cricket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday.Needing only 73 runs to win, Bangladesh sailed home making 78 for the loss of one wicket still having 48 balls to spare.Bangladesh made a good start as Tamim Iqbal and Anamul Haque, the two openers, put on together 45 runs in the opening stand before Tamim Iqbal was trapped leg before wicket by Samiullah Shenwari. After the departure of Tamim Iqbal, Shakib Al Hasan came at the crease. Anamul Haque and Shakib Al Hasan guided their team to notch up the emphatic victory. They contributed 33 runs for the unbroken second wicket partnership.Anamul Haque remained unbeaten with 44. His 33-ball sparkling innings was studded with three over boundaries and four boundaries.Tamim Iqbal hit a worthy 21 from 27 balls including two fours while Shakib Al Hasan remained unbeaten with 10 off 12 balls.Earlier, Bangladesh bowlers dominated over the Afghan batsmen and bundled out them for a paltry 72 off 17.1 overs. It was the ever lowest total in a Twenty20 International match.Three batsmen of Afghanistan could reach double digit figures. Gulbadin Naib made 21 from 22 balls with three fours and a sixer.Shafiqullah and Karim Sadiq scored 16 and 10 runs respectively. Mr Extra contributed 12 runs to the Afghanistan total.Ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan grabbed three wickets at the cost of eight runs while Abdur Razzak bagged a pair of wickets conceding 20 runs.Besides, Farhad Reza, Mahudullah Riyad and Mashrafe Bin Mortaza took one wicket each for two, eight and eight runs respectively.Shakib Al Hasan was adjudged the Man of the Match for his all-round performance.
