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[VIDEO] Bangladesh vs Afghanistan highlights: 2015 Cricket World Cup scores

18th February, 2015
Venue: Manuka Oval, Canberra
Time: 2:30pm (AEDT)
TV: Live, Fox Sports
Betting: Afghanistan $4.00, Bangladesh $1.25
Bangladesh will look to prove their doubters wrong with a first up win over Pakistan at the ICC World T20. (AFP)
Roar Guru
18th February, 2015
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11636 Reads

Bangladesh and Afghanistan go head-to-head in their World Cup encounter in Canberra. You ​can ​follow the live scores of this match from 2.30pm AEDT.​

Bangladesh has been in international cricket for more than 25 years, but barring the odd upset in World Cup cricket, they have flattered to deceive.

Afghanistan are playing in their first ever 50-over World Cup, having featured in the World T20s before.

Both sides have a passionate set of fans following them, and defeat to the other might be difficult to tolerate. Bangladesh obviously start as the more fancied side but the last time the two clashed, in the 2014 Asia Cup, Afghanistan shocked their opponents in their own den to come up trumps.

What makes that win even more special is the fact that Afghanistan were in a bad shape at one stage in the game, having lost five wickets for the 90. With not too much batting to come after that, it was left to the pair of Asghar Stanigzai and Samiullah Shenwari to guide them out of trouble. Stanigzai made 90, Shenwari 81, and Afghanistan recovered to post a more than decent 254 in their 50.

Suddenly, the pressure was on the home side, who have been known to crumble under it at home. That’s exactly what happened.

After losing two wickets for just one, the then-captain Mushfiqur Rahim threw away a start, Mominul Haque scored a 50 before getting out, and despite 30s and 40s from the lower-middle-order, none of them could stay long enough at the crease.

Captain Mohammad Nabi’s three-wicket haul helped the Afghanis bowl Bangladesh out 32 runs short, to register a famous victory.

Going into the World Cup, Bangladesh ran Pakistan close but were routed by Ireland in the second game. Afghanistan were crushed by India but did a lot better against UAE – another minnow nation – putting on 308 batting first before restricting their opponents to 294.

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Bangladesh have trouble facing pace bowling, and on paper Afghanistan’s fast bowling unit looks as good if not better than their opposition. The trouble will be the nature of surface.

If the track has the extra juice that quick bowlers relish, then the likes of Shapoor Zadran, Dawlat Zadran and Hamid Hasan might have a bigger say in the game than the Bangladesh bowlers.

If the pitch plays out to be a flat-batting beauty, the Bangladesh batsmen could cash in, much like the India and UAE batsmen did in those two warm-up games against Afghanistan.

Early wickets remain the key and the likes of Tamim Iqbal and Haque will have a lot riding on how they start things off for Bangladesh.

Bangladesh start favourites but I wouldn’t put it beyond Afghanistan to run them real close.

You can follow the live score of this Bangladesh vs Afghanistan World Cup 2015 encounter from ​2.30pm (AEDT). Post your comments ​in the section ​below.

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