Shahzad's dramatic opening acts

Mohammad Shahzad often goes after the bowling as early as the first ball, but this gamble didn't come off today. Mashrafe Mortaza bowled a wide delivery, which Shahzad must have thought could be smashed anywhere. He toed the ball, it climbed a fair distant up in the air and travelled only as far as mid-off where Mahmudullah caught it.

Shahzad has a reputation of being a talkative wicketkeeper, particularly skilled at needling batsmen. When Tamim Iqbal was taking guard and with a cameraman loitering around the wicket, he said something to Tamim. The batsman looked as if he didn't first understand what was being said. Tamim seemingly asked someone to translate what was said, and called for the umpire Nigel Llong, who shooed away the cameraman and calmed Shahzad down.

Sabbir Rahman's first act in the field was to drop Naib at long-on. It was a simple chance off Shakib Al Hasan, but Sabbir could not hold on, just like a lot of Bangladeshi fielders in the last two months. Soon, however, Sabbir turned it around, running 10m to his right to take a good catch.

With the six being romanticised, trivialised and everything else in the World T20, the first one of the tournament was a miscued shot. Gulbadin Naib, a strong hitter, didn't make a good connection, but the ball went over the long-on fence. It was also the only six of the Afghanistan innings.

Tamim hadn't played for Bangladesh for more than a month due to a neck strain, so when his name was read out, there was an understandable cheer from the Mirpur crowd. His first shot of intention in his return innings was to give Shapoor Zadran, Afghanistan's best fast bowler, a charge. He found the gap easily, and the ball thudded on to the electronic advertising boards.