Bangladesh keep hopes alive as Shakib Al Hasan sinks Afghanistan

If England needed a reminder of just how fragile their hopes of making the World Cup semi-finals currently are, the presence of Bangladesh breathing down their neck in the standings following this convincing win against Afghanistan provided it. Roared on by a boisterous army of Tiger-clad fans, Bangladesh produced a performance that has infused them with genuine belief they can reach the last four of this tournament.

They now sit fifth in the table on seven points, one behind England and with matches against India and Pakistan remaining. If Bangladesh win both, Eoin Morgan’s team will need to win two of their final three group matches to beat them to a place in the top four. With games against Australia, whom England face at Lord’s on Tuesday, followed by India and New Zealand that is certainly no given.

What will worry them most is the momentum and confidence this victory will hand Bangladesh. Beating Indiathe at Edgbaston next Tuesday may seem like a tall order for Mashrafe Mortaza’s side. Yet with Shakib Al Hasan in this kind of form they will believe anything is possible. Here was more evidence to back up the claim he is the best all-rounder in the world as he became only the second player in World Cup history to score a half-century and claim a five-wicket haul in the same match.

“Shakib has been fantastic throughout the tournament, he’s been phenomenal,” said Mortaza. “We’ll try our level best against Pakistan and India. It’s still wide open. You never know.”

Bangladesh’s man of the moment was equally buoyant about his team’s chances of progress, Shakib saying: “England have three matches left and we have two so it’s difficult mathematically. But having said that anything can happen. We have to believe.”

Shakib’s day started with a fifth 50-plus score of the tournament that saw him overtake Australia’s David Warner as the World Cup’s leading runscorer. Those 51 runs – plus a composed 83 from Mushfiqur Rahim – helped Bangladesh post a total of 262 for seven on the same pitch that was used when Afghanistan fell 12 runs short of chasing down 225 against India on Saturday.

This contest was nowhere near as close thanks in large part to the left-arm spin of Shakib, who ripped the heart out of Afghanistan’s pursuit of 263 with a haul of five for 29 – the best individual bowling figures of the tournament so far.

They included the key wickets of the captain, Gulbadin Naib, and then Mohammad Nabi for a duck in the space of three balls during the 29th over. It reduced a team who were already struggling to keep up with the required run rate to 104 for four. By the time Shakib struck again four overs later, tempting Asghar Afghan into a slog sweep that saw him caught in the deep, they were even further behind.

A brilliant direct hit from Liton Das at midwicket that ran out Ikram Alikhil all but ended this match as a contest as Afghanistan limped to 132 for six, still needing 131 from 89 balls to pull off an unlikely win.

In the 43rd over, Shakib struck for the fifth time, Najibullah Zadran stumped after being flummoxed by a quicker arm ball. Zadran’s dismissal saw the Bangladeshi emulate the all-round feat of Yuvraj Singh against Ireland in 2011 – the Indian having scored an unbeaten 50 after taking five for 31 on that occasion.

Mustafizur Rahman’s two wickets and another for Mohammad Saifuddin then polished off the tail as Bangladesh bowled out their opponents for 200 in 47 overs.

Afghanistan have yet to register a victory at this tournament and they did themselves no favours in this match after deciding to bowl first on a used pitch. It allowed Bangladesh to control the contest from the very start, taking few risks as they successfully calculated a score of around 250 would set up victory.

The Afghan fielding – summed up by Dawlat Zadran’s drop of Saifuddan in the final over of the Bangladesh innings – was again poor here as it has been for much of the tournament.

Yet even if it had been flawless, Afghanistan would still have been powerless to stop the force of nature that is Shakib.