Cricket is a funny sport, as one day you can be the best player in the world, but the next day you can be someone who is not required to be on the team at all. Similarly, one day you can be a team that is admired by everyone in the cricketing fraternity, but one bad day at the office can compel everyone to start questioning why you are even a cricket-playing nation.
Something like this happened with Afghanistan when they were on the rise in the cricketing world, as they were bowled out for a score that is still their lowest ever team total in an ICC Men’s T20 World Cup match.
The first match of the ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2014 was played between Bangladesh and Afghanistan in Mirpur on March 16, 2014. Bangladesh elected to bowl first in the match, seeing the conditions and thinking that the dew might come in later during the second innings.
But an incredible bowling display from the Bangladesh bowlers and a horrendous batting display from the Afghanistan batters kept the dew out of the game as Bangladesh were chasing a very low total of just 73 runs, which they completed in 12 overs for the loss of just one wicket.
Also read: Watch: How SubAir drainage system will save RCB vs CSK in IPL 2024
The Afghanistan innings had the worst start possible as Mohammad Shehzad was bowled on the first ball of the match. The innings never took off after that, as wickets started falling one after the other. Gulbadin Naib scored a 22-ball 21 and tried to hang in there but perished at the end trying to play a big shot.
Only three Afghan batters managed to reach an individual score in double digits, and the rest of the batters were just out on a single-digit score. No batter scored with a strike rate of more than 100 in the innings, as Afghanistan could score only 72 runs and were all out in 17.1 overs.
Bangladesh won the match comfortably, as Shakib Al Hasan was the player of the match for his bowling figures of 3.1-0-8-3.
