‘He is a special talent’, Shahidi says on Ghazanfar’s six-wicket haul

Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi praised teenage spinner AM Ghazanfar as 'special talent after his side's 92-run victory against Bangladesh in the first ODI of the three-match series Sharjah on Wednesday. 

The 18-year-old took a career best six-wicket haul to dismantle Bangladesh as Afghanistan claimed a convincing win.

Ghazanfar grabbed 6-26 in 6.3 overs as Bangladesh crumbled from 132-3 to 143 all out after being set a modest 236-run target.

Ghazanfar, playing in his sixth ODI, triggered a Bangladesh collapse after skipper Najmul Hossain (47) and Mehidy Hasan (28) had put Bangladesh on track for a successful chase.

Opener Soumya Sarkar also made 33 before the wheels came off for Bangladesh.

Once Nabi dismissed Najmul, Ghazanfar came into his own in his fifth over by removing Mehidy, and then claimed three more wickets in his next over.

He had Mushfiqur Rahim stumped and trapped Rishad Hossain lbw, both for one, before bowling Taskin Ahmed for a first-ball duck.

Ghazanfar wrapped up the match with the wicket of Shoriful Islam, registering the best figures in all Bangladesh-Afghanistan ODIs, bettering Shakib Al Hasan's 5-29 at Southampton in 2019.

"The way the spinners bowled was brilliant. He [Ghazanfar] is a special talent. Good kid, good future for Afghanistan. I trust him and that is why he is in the team and playing. First few overs also he bowled well. After the no ball, I asked him what he was doing and asked him to not do it again (laughs)," said Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi.

"We have a lot of youngsters. We have other options available as back-ups," he added.

"Afghanistan always have mystery spinners, everyone bowled really well and he (Ghazanfar) bowled really well," said Bangladesh captain Najmul Hossain Shanto.

Afghanistan were themselves in trouble at 35-4 before Mohammad Nabi and Shahidi put on an innings-repairing 104 runs for the sixth wicket to lift the team to a fighting total.

Mohammad Nabi hit 84 off 79 balls after Shahidi made a sedate 52 for Afghanistan, who were dismissed for 235 in 49.4 overs having won the toss and batted first. 

"It is unfortunate that Ibrahim is not with us - he is our best player as an opener. When I was batting with Nabi we thought a 230-plus total would be enough with our bowling."

Najmul rued Bangladesh's batting slump and placed part of the blame on himself.

"I think my wicket turned the match," said Najmul. "I was the set batsman so when I got out we needed to bat longer but credit to Afghanistan spinners for the way they bowled."