It will be a do or die match for Bangladesh as they face Afghanistan in their crucial second T20I of the three-match series scheduled to be held tomorrow (Tuesday) at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, India, reports BSS.
Afghanistan on the other hand would love to win tomorrow to take unassailable a 2-0 lead in the series.
The Tigers must be licking their wounds after suffering a tame a 45-run defeat in the first match against Afghanistan on Sunday (yesterday), now onus is on Bangladesh that they will have to win the second match tomorrow to remain in the three match series while a win will be enough for Afghans to record first ever series victory against Bangladesh in the shortest version of cricket.
Afghanistan’s seriously formidable spin trio of Rashid, Mujeeb and Nabi pick up 6-54 in 11 overs yesterday. They are as good a combination as any in the game now, certainly in T20. Three wickets each from Rashid Khan and Shapoor Zadran helped Afghanistan bowl out Bangladesh for 122 to win by 45 runs and take a 1-0 series lead in the series.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan in a post match press conference said, that they bowled well, except for the last four overs which made them lose the match. He said, giving away those many runs was not ideal and for that reason Afghanistan had the luxury to set up a challenging 167 runs target which at the end looked a very formidable target.
Shakib added they have to rectify their mistakes and look at the areas which they need to improve. They are a good side, and they outplayed us in all three departments.
Overall we have so many areas which we need to look at. When you’re chasing 170-odd runs, you need to bat well. Credit to them the way they bowled. They’ve got some quality spinners, he added.
In the second session yesterday Tigers batters succumbed against Afghanistan’s spin wizard Rashid Khan. Bangladesh were in control at 80/3 at the halfway mark, before Rashid Khan was introduced. With his first ball, he made Mushfiqur Rahim pay for his ludicrous reverse-sweep. With his second, he bamboozled Sabbir Rahman with a googly, and that was it for Bangladesh who could not find it within them to recover.
Of course, it was Afghanistan’s late dash with the bat, plundering 52 runs in the last three overs, which allowed Stanikzai to hold Rashid back for the final ten overs and did not allow Bangladesh the liberty to just play him off.
Tomorrow Bangladesh will have to bat well and handle Afghan spinning trio with maturity and while bowling they will have to restrict Afghan batsmen with a plan to stop them from posting another challenging total tomorrow.
