Afghanistan knock Bangladesh and Australia out to reach T20 World Cup semis

Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by eight runs via DLS method to qualify for the semifinal of the T20 World Cup for the first time in their history. 

Their win saw Australia and Bangladesh eliminated from the tournament. 

Bangladesh had to chase 116 in 12.1 overs to reach the semifinal on a difficult pitch. They were behind the required rate but not by much close to the halfway stage.

A floating batting order and negative batting approach saw Bangladesh fall way short of the rate and rain before the closure of the 12th over saw Bangladesh out of the semifinal race.

Fazalhaq Farooqi got Tanzid Hasan leg before in the second over with a superb inswinger. 

His new-ball partner Naveen-ul-Haq then removed Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib Al Hasan in consecutive deliveries to reduce Bangladesh to 23-3 in the third over.

Litton Das and Soumya Sarkar (10 off 10) added 25 for the fourth wicket but they were quickly falling behind the asking rate. 

Towhid Hridoy (14 off nine) tried to up the ante but Rashid Khan got rid of him. 

Litton hit a couple of boundaries then to bring the equation down to 43 off 19 to qualify for the semifinal but an over with five dots from Noor Ahmad to Mahmudullah made things difficult for Bangladesh. 

It was a baffling passage of play as Bangladesh didn’t quite look like chasing the semifinal spot anymore.

Things started to fall apart for Bangladesh as Rashid sent back Mahmudullah and Rishad in successive deliveries. 

Tanzim Hasan Sakib was dismissed by Gulbadin Naib and Taskin Ahmed joined Litton when Bangladesh needed 22 off 25 balls.

Naveen bowled a cutter to dismiss Taskin when Bangladesh needed nine off nine balls

Bangladesh held Afghanistan to 115-5 thanks to a decent bowling performance. 

On a two-paced wicket, Bangladesh opening bowlers Tanzim and Taskin bowled with a lot of heart, hit the pitch and made life difficult for Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran with the ball nibbling around a bit.

The bowlers asked questions but the Afghanistan duo managed to keep their wickets intact in the powerplay. After six overs, they were 27-0.

Gurbaz and Ibrahim saw off the early threat successfully and continued to put pressure on Bangladesh with their electric running between the wickets. 

After a match-winning hundred partnership, the duo added 59 off 64 before Rishad got the better of Ibrahim (18 off 29).

Bangladesh managed to dry the runs up with an array of dot balls after Ibrahim’s dismissal. The period between the 11th to 15th over was quite productive for Bangladesh as they conceded just 22 runs.

The dot balls led to the dismissal of Azmatullah Omarzai in the 16th over as he nicked one to Litton Das off Mustafizur Rahman. 

Rishad (4-0-26-3) came back to snare Gurbaz (43 off 55) at a crucial juncture of the game. In the same over, Soumya took an absolute blinder to send back Gulbadin, running in from deep cover.

Taskin returned to claim the wicket of Mohammad Nabi and finished with exceptional figures of 4-1-12-1.

Mustafizur (one for 17) bowled an exceptional penultimate over to keep a rampant Rashid Khan quiet. 

But the Afghanistan captain (19* off 10) hit two sixes in the final over to get the score to 115.