Following his side’s eight-run defeat against Afghanistan in the Super Eights match of the T20 World Cup 2024, Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto said that they made poor decisions while batting in the middle overs. Najmul Hossain Shanto displayed a poor performance in the second innings of the match. He scored 5 runs from 5 balls at a strike rate of 100.00. The Bangladesh skipper just slammed 1-four during his time on the crease. Speaking after the match, Shanto said that their plan was to go hard in the first six overs of the second innings. He also accepted that the middle order of Bangladesh’s batting lineup failed to execute.

He further added that the Bangladesh bowling attack performed well throughout the tournament.

“I think we bowled really well, we did lots of good things but as a batting unit, we made poor decisions, especially in the middle overs and that’s what cost us today. The plan was to go hard in the first six overs, if we lost early wickets, the plan was to bat normally, but that didn’t happen and the middle-order couldn’t execute. The whole tournament we have bowled really well, both the pacers and the spinners. Especially Rishad was great, the fast bowlers also did really well. Also, as a fielding group, we did well,” Shanto said.

Recapping the match, after winning the toss Rashid Khan-led Afghanistan decided to bat against Bangladesh.

Rahmanullah Gurbaz (43 runs from 55 balls, 3 fours and 1 six) played a stupendous knock for the Afghan side and powered them to 115-5. Ibrahim Zadran (18 runs from 29 balls, 1 four) and Rashid Khan (19* runs from 10 balls, 3 sixes) tried their best in the final stage of the first inning and added some crucial runs on the scoreboard.

Rishad Hossain led the Bangladesh bowling attack after he picked up three wickets and gave 26 runs in his four-over spell.

The second inning of the match was reduced to 19 overs, and the target was 114 runs after rain played a spoilsport in the second inning.

During the run chase, Litton Das (54* runs from 49 balls, 5 fours, and 1 six) was the only standout batter for the Tigers as he scored the highest among his teammates.

Naveen-ul-Haq and Rashid Khan picked up four wickets each in their respective spells. Fazalhaq Farooqi and Gulbadin Naib also bagged one wicket each in their respective spells and helped the Afghan side win the match by eight runs.

After the defeat, Mitchell Marsh-led Australia are also out of the tournament. The Aussies ended up in third place in the Group 1 table of the Super Eights with just two points.