Twitter Reactions: Ghazanfar’s six-fer floors Bangladesh in first ODI

Afghanistan and Bangladesh kicked off their three-match ODI series on Wednesday, November 6 at the Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first.

Bangladesh struck early, sending back Rahmanullah Gurbaz to the pavilion for a mere five runs. Rahmat Shah did not get going as he was dismissed next for 2(13). Afghanistan kept on losing wickets at regular intervals and were 71/5 after 20 overs. The wrecker-in-chief up until now was Mustafizur Rahman.

But Afghanistan fought back in the form of Mohammad Nabi (84 off 79) and Shahidi (52 off 92) who formed a 104-run partnership for the sixth wicket, bringing their team back into the game. Nangeyalia Kharote played a handy innings down the order, scoring an unbeaten 27 off 28 balls to allow Afghanistan to reach a competitive total of 235 in the end. For Bangladesh, Rahman and Taskin Ahmed picked up four wickets each while Shoriful contributed with one.

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In response, Bangladesh were rocked early too. Allah Ghazanfar, the 18-year-old offspinner, dismissed Tanzid Hasan for three runs. Soumya Sarkar (33 off 45 balls) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (47 off 68 balls) stabilised the innings with a 53-run partnership but the former was dismissed by Azmatullah Omarzai just when the partnership looked threatening. Mehidy Hasan Miraz provided support to Shanto for the third-wicket partnership but both were dismissed at a crucial juncture of the game.

What was to come next was not expected by anyone as Bangladesh suffered a dramatic collapse, going from 132/3 to 143 all out. Ghazanfar (6/26) was the chief destroyer at this stage and his wily off-spin spun a web around even the veteran of Bangladeshi batters. The off-break bowler was on a hat-trick chance as well at one stage but failed to achieve it. The Bangladeshi lower order gave nothing to write home about and eventually Afghanistan wrapped up the innings, winning the game by a majestic 92-run margin.

Apart from Ghazanfar, Rashid Khan (2/28), Azmatullah Omarzai (1/16) and Mohammad Nabi (1/23) were the other wicket-takers. The second ODI will be played on Saturday, November 9 at the same venue.

Here’s how X reacted to Afghanistan’s dramatic win –