Nasum's riddle wrecks Afghans as Tigers clinch series starter

Liton Das's willow-work followed by Nasum Ahmed's whirlwind onslaught flattened visiting Afghanistan on Thursday by 61 runs in the starter of the two-match T20i series to give Bangladesh a 1-0 lead.
With couple of changes in both the sides, Bangladesh won the toss at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium and elected to bat first. Hosts took a rain check to their skipper's pre-match press-meet and pegged a decent total of 155 runs on the board losing eight wickets ridding on the bat of man on song Liton Das. The stalwart had put visiting bowlers to the sword to skittle-out 60 off 44 underpinning four boundaries, who sent ball to the crowd on couple of occasions. The wicketkeeper, usually opens with the bat, came on one-down after quick dismissal of Naim Sheikh on two and stood 15-run's partnership with debutant Munim Shahriar, who had a 17-run outing.
Liton however, added 22 more runs in the 3rd wicket's joint venture pairing
with Shakib Al Hasan as Shakib stared for five. Skipper Mahmudullah accompanied Liton to add 33 runs in the 4th wickets collaboration as Mahmudullah contributed 10 runs.
The best part of the Bangladesh's heyday was the 46-run 5th wicket partnership between Liton and Afif Hossain. Afif, the 2nd leading Bangladesh scorer chipped in with 25 runs.
None of the rest batters could even plunge a two-digit figure as another Bangladeshi debutant Yasir Ali Rabbi and spinning all-rounder Mahedi Hasan both fell run outs on eight and five respectively while Nasum and Shoriful Islam remained unbeaten on three and four runs till the end.
Afghan debutant all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai and his peer-pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi shared two wickets apiece while leggy duo Rashid Khan and Qais Ahmed got one wicket each.
Challenging 156, Afghanistan lost their top four batters within powerplay and Tigers' left-arm orthodox Nasum claimed all four whiffers. Nasum hauled four wickets allowing 10 runs only from his stipulated four overs producing 17 dots!
Afghan opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz narrowly escaped in the very 2nd ball of their batting innings, had fallen a victim of Nasum in the 4th delivery of the same over and returned to the dugout for a duck. His opening-mate Hazratullah Zazai was fooled in the first ball of the 3rd over scoring six while man on debut Darwish Rasooli was uprooted on two and Karim Janat stopped on six as Afghanistan were in serious trouble with 20 for four.
Experienced Nazibullah Zadran, skipper Mohammad Nabi and Omorzai's stubbornness had just minimised the defeating margin. Nazibullah horded 27 off 26, Nabi 16 off 19 and Omorzai assembled 20 off 18. Qais Ahmed's eight off nine was the next highest Afghan individual score as tourists were bundled out for 94 in 17.4 overs. Tigers' thereby, registered a massive 61-run triumph over the Afghans.
Besides, Nasum's four-for, the left-arm speedster Shoriful Islam scalped three wickets for 29 runs, Shakib notched two for 18 and Mustafizur Rahman bagged the rest for 19 runs.
Nasum named the Player of the Match for his supernatural bowling spell while Liton was adjudged the Most Valuable Player for his sublime innings with the bat.
The two sides however, will lock horns in the ultimate clash of the ongoing Afghanistan tour of Bangladesh tomorrow at the same venue at the same time.