(Cricket news) The Afghanistan tour of Bangladesh continued to be a losing cause for the visitors as they lost the first T20 match by 61 runs. Afghanistan is currently leading their head to head matches with 4 wins in 7 matches and Bangladesh can level the score in the second T20 which will be played on March 5.

Bangladesh won the toss and opted to bat first as the decision immediately backfired when Rashid Khan and Fazalhaq Farooqi took out the openers before the end of powerplay. Liton Das continued his run scoring agenda with his third successive half century on tour but could not find any steady partnerships at the other end. Shakib Al Hasan only lasted an over as he edged the ball to Mujeeb Ur Rahman in the 8th over, captain Mahmudullah fell to debutant Azmatullah Omarzai when he misread a full toss.

Rashid Khan was the pick of the bowlers for the Afghan team, he gave away just 15 runs in 4 overs while taking the wicket of debutant Munim Shahriar. Captain Mohammad Nabi and Qais Ahmad went for more than 9 runs an over in their 2 over spells. This was the first time Bangladesh had scored more than 150 runs in a T20 match against Afghanistan, their previous best was 144 in Dehradun 4 years ago. Afghanistan had a much poorer start as compared to their hosts as Nasum Ahmed picked up the first 4 wickets in 5 overs as the score was 20-4. The team could never recover from that fall as Najibullah Zadran and Mohammad Nabi were initially resisting the Bangladeshi attack and held the fort for 5 overs.

In the 10th over, Nabi stepped out his crease for a big hit against Shakib but the spinner bowled a little to the off stump as Afif Hossain held the ball far ahead of the boundary ropes. The 34 year old again struck an over later when he dismissed Najibullah which ended the hopes for the Afghan team. Azmatullah Omarzai tried his best in his first match for the side as he scored 20 runs off 18 balls but fell to a slow delivery by Mustafizur Rahman.

The Afghanistan team were done and dusted for 94 as it was their second lowest score against Bangladesh after the 74 all out in the same venue 8 years ago. Nasum was the trouble maker for the team by taking 4 scalps for 10 runs in his spell, Shakib took two crucial wickets for 18 runs in his spell and is a wicket away from 120 scalps.

Bangladesh: 155/8 in 20 overs

Afghanistan: 94/10 in 17.4 overs

Player of the match: Nasum Ahmed, 4-10-4

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