Afghanistan lost to Bangladesh by 105 runs in their debut match in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015. Afghanistan has qualified in the 50 overs ICC World Cup for the first time this year. However, the first match turned out to a bit of a dampener for the Afghanistan cricket team as Bangladesh defeated them by 105 runs.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza won the toss and decided to bat first. Afghanistan bowlers started well and restricted the Bangladeshi openers Anamul Haque (29 runs off 55 balls) and Tamim Iqbal (19 runs off 42 balls) from scoring runs briskly in the initial overs. Bangladesh had only scored 52 runs losing 2 wickets when Anamul Haque got out in the 17th over. However, the Bangladesh middle order provided both stability and pace to their innings as they reached 267 runs in their allotted 50 overs. Wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim and allrounder Shakib Al Hasan were the highest scorers for Bangladesh with scores of 71 runs off 56 balls and 63 runs off 51 balls respectively. Hamid Hassan, Shapoor Zadran, Aftab Alam and Mirwais Ashraf took 2 wickets each for Afghanistan while Mohammad Nabi scalped one.
Afghanistan had a terrible start as they lost their first 3 wickets for only 3 runs. Mohammad Nabi (44 runs off 43 balls) and Samiullah Shenwari (42 runs off 75 balls) tried to give some stability and build up the innings. But other wickets fell cheaply as Afghanistan were bowled out for only 162 runs in 42.5 overs. Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza scalped 3 wickets while Shakib Al Hasan took 2 wickets. Mushfiqur Rahim was declared the player of the match.
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