Afghanistan vs Bangladesh, 1st T20I at Dehra Dun, Jun 03 2018 - Ball by Ball Commentary

11.36pm That's it from us today. A convincing win for Afghanistan, set up by some serious late-overs hitting and some serious spin bowling. Bangladesh have it all to do to come back into the series. Let's see if they can manage it. Until then, good night!

Rashid Khan, quite predictably, is the man of the match. "There was no secret, just keep everything simple, do everything I've been doing in the last 2-3 months. I had no specific plans when I came on after 10 overs. Just bowl a little back of a length, not too full for the batsman to hit. In the end I just try to enjoy myself. It was a good surface, ball was gripping. Little bit of dew in the end, but with that dew it was gripping better. We just played IPL - it's the biggest stage and the biggest platform, so the confidence will help you in these games."

Asghar Stanikzai: "Every series, every tournament, the first game is important. Today especially, all the batsmen played very well. Shafiq and Samiullah gave us the momentum after we lost a few wickets in the middle overs. I know my bowlers, which time to use them. The conditions are good for us, we know the wickets, we know the conditions. I want to congratulate the Afghanistan people and thank the crowd, it felt like we were in Afghanistan."

Shakib Al Hasan: "Generally we bowled well except for the last overs which cost us the match. Giving away 64 in four overs was not ideal. A lot to do, we need to sit down and look at which are the areas we can improve. Obviously they are a good side - they outplayed us in all departments. It's a tough decision (not to bowl Mahmudullah more). If I had given him one more over and he had gone for a few sixers, you would have asked me why I gave him the ball and not the regular bowlers. When you're chasing 170-odd, you need to bat well, top order batsmen need to bat through, but we kept on losing wickets. Credit to them. They have quality spinners and they stepped it up."

Nayeem: "Around 10 days for the first Test, But I'm more worried, How would the Indians play out the Afghan duo? Mujeeb and Rashid with red, shiny and dangerous looking cherry. Since Indians of late have the history of making ordinary bowlers look extraordinary, ex, Moeen, Steve O'Keefe's, Monty Panesar, etc..." --- I wouldn't call any of them ordinary bowlers, to be fair, and Rashid and Mujeeb will need to show they have the ability to bowl long spells when batsmen aren't trying to attack them, but let's leave that aside for now, and marvel at what utterly brilliant talents they are. I want to see them play Test cricket, and I want to see them play a lot of Test cricket.

2018-06-03 17:43:29: ruffin.r360@gmail.com (bd)

Ruffin: "If Bangladesh lose this, it's a huge shame! Wake up BCB, wake up! It's been more than six months without a coach. And what on earth are our players learning from BPL? Is playing 5 foreigners doing a heck of goods for your players? They still don't know how to handle pressure in T20s. That's a shame, absolute shame."

Ihsan Shagiwal: "India and other big teams will be watching this. Hold on guys Afghanistan is coming and is coming very strong this time."

Aranya Das: "The umpiring standard has been really poor in this match, has to be said." -- Agreed. Not spotting that high full-toss was pretty poor, and Liton got a genuinely rough decision.

11.23pm Afghanistan go 1-0 up, and this was on the cards right from the time Rashid Khan came on. Bangladesh were roughly on course, but had already given away a couple more wickets than they would have liked, and then the leggie came on and took out two in two balls - Mushfiqur Rahim and Sabbir Rahman - to expose Bangladesh's lack of batting depth. Lots to ponder for Bangladesh after this game.

Round the wicket now.

Shapoor comes back with Bangladesh needing 55 off 18.

Left-hander walks to the crease. Abul Hasan. Can he find a way to hit Rashid Khan out of the park?