Bangladesh Team shattered numerous records in the Asia Cup following their emphatic win over Afghanistan in the second group game of the continental event on Sunday. Shakib Al Hasan produced a dominating performance in all three departments to give their side a real chance to make it into the Group 4 stage of the Asia Cup 2023.
Bangladesh Tigers made three changes to their playing XI for the game against Afghanistan, alongside promoting Mehidy Hasan Miraz to open the batting for the side, which paid off for Bangladesh. He went on to hit his second ODI hundred for the team, showing a lot of composure at the start of the innings.
Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan formed a brilliant partnership along with the in-form man Najmul Hossain Shanto to help them post a massive total of 334/5 at the end of the 50 overs in the must-win encounter in Lahore.
Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Najmul Hossain Shanto came together to stitch a partnership of 194 runs which eventually helped Bangladesh to post a mammoth total in the game thereby registering the highest partnership for Bangladesh in the continental event.
The previous highest partnership was held by Imrul Kayes and Junaid Siddique against Pakistan in 2010. This is Bangladesh’s third-highest partnership in ODI cricket and the highest against an Asian team.
With 335 runs to chase, Afghanistan had a decent start to their innings with Ibrahim Zadran (75), Rahmat Shah (33), and Hashmatullah Shahidi (51) making some valuable contributions for the team. However, the Afghanistan side could not accelerate in the 2nd half of the match as they struggled to go big with run-rate climbing on the other side.
Bangladesh registered one of the finest victories in recent times after a defeat against the co-host nation Sri Lanka in their opening encounter of the game. Afghanistan will require a massive win over the heavy-weights Sri Lanka to qualify for the next stage of the tournament.
Afghanistan would find it difficult to overpower the run-rate of Shakib Al Hasan-led side to make it into the Super 4 stage of Asia Cup 2023.
Bangladesh will take a lot of positives from the game against Afghanistan, as they ticked almost all the boxes going into the next stage of the tournament.