Sydney, Feb 18: Bangladesh kicked off its World Cup campaign on a spectacular note as Mashrafe Mortaza’s men recorded a stunning 105-run victory over Afghanistan on Wednesday in their Pool A game in Canberra.
Winning the toss and opting to bat first, Bangladeshi opener Anamul Haque and Tamim Iqbal failed to carry forward the good start as both got dismissed by pacer Mirwais Ashraf for individual score of 29 and 19 runs respectively.
Mahmudullah (23) and Soumya Sarkar (28) put up a third wicket partnership of 50 runs before both got dismissed by Shapoor Zadran.
Subsequently, all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan (63) and Mushfiqur Rahim (71) steadied the ship and accelerated the innings to help Bangladesh post a respectable total of 267.
Chasing the target, Afghanistan were reeling at 3 for three wickets in the third but Nawroz Mangal (27) found an able ally in Samiullah Shenwari (42) as the duo steadied the ship by adding 62-run fourth wicket partnership.
Skipper Mohammad Nabi also played a crucial knock of 44 but the team kept on losing wickets at regular intervals as they were all out for 163 runs.
Mashrafe Mortaza was the pick of the bowler for Bangladesh as he claimed three wickets.
Mushfiqur Rahim has been declared as the Man of the Match for his stellar knock of 71.
