Bangladesh beat Afghanistan to stay alive in Asia Cup / Photo: Mosaraf HOSSAIN - AFP
Bangladesh beat Afghanistan to stay alive in Asia Cup
Spinner Nasum Ahmed produced a miserly spell to help Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by eight runs on Tuesday and keep their Asia Cup hopes alive.
Bangladesh posted 154-5 batting first as opener Tanzid Hasan starred with his 52 off 31 balls in Abu Dhabi.
Nasum and fellow spinner Rishad Hossain then took two wickets each before pace bowler Mustafizur Rahman returned figures of 3-28 to help bowl out Afghanistan for 146.
Taskin Ahmed also claimed two wickets as he wrapped up the innings with the final ball of the match.
Bangladesh ended Group B with two wins and one defeat in their three outings.
Their chances of reaching the Super Four stage will depend on the final match of the group between Afghanistan and Sri Lanka on Thursday.
Bangladesh will go through if Sri Lanka win, but an Afghan victory would see them progress and leave the Sri Lankans and Bangladesh to be split on net run-rate.
Left-arm spinner Nasum rocked the Afghanistan chase early when he struck with the first ball of the innings to trap Sediqullah Atal lbw and then grabbed the key wicket of Ibrahim Zadran, for five, in the fifth over.
He returned figures of 2-11 from his four overs.
Rishad dismissed Gulbadin Naib caught and bowled for 16 with his leg-spin and then sent back the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz for 35 to dent Afghanistan.
Azmatullah Omarzai attempted to revive the chase with three sixes in his 16-ball 30 but holed out off Taskin.
Skipper Rashid Khan made one final push with a quickfire 20 but fell to Mustafizur, who struck again to be on a hat-trick which was avoided by Fazalhaq Farooqi.
Earlier Tanzid put on an opening stand of 63 with Saif Hasan, who made 30, as the two racked up 59 in the powerplay.
Rashid broke the stand as he struck in his first over by bowling Saif and Afghanistan's spinners soon took control.
Left-arm wrist spinner Noor Ahmad trapped skipper Litton Das lbw for nine to further peg back Bangladesh.
Tanzid raised his fifty off 28 deliveries but fell to Noor in the next over.
Towhid Hridoy added a 20-ball 26 but although Bangladesh managed just 67 runs in the final 10 overs, it proved enough for the win.
N.Steward--EWJ
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