Afghanistan amassed 147-5, huffing and puffing their way to a fighting total. Bangladesh did pretty well to stem the flow in the middle overs after solid contributions from Sediq, Ibrahim, and Gurbaz. Nabi once again cashed in on his rich vein of form, adding a crucial 20 runs that could prove to be the difference. Nasum bowled economically once again, Saifuddin conceded only 22 in his spell, while Shoriful kept things tight, returning 1-13 - and was miserly in the powerplay. Rishad took some vital scalps in the middle overs and extracted huge turn. It should be a fascinating second half. Afghanistan will not make it easy and will look to exploit the spin-friendly conditions. The powerplay will be of immense importance. I'll be back shortly to take you through the chase.

ushar D. Ponda: "Consistently scoring just at about 6 an over less during a T20 powerplay to save wickets for later is a an extremely antiquated T20 ploy. Either the incumbent Afghan openers will need to start taking higher risks to accelerate their powerplay scoring rate to at least 7.5 to 8 or they should make way for some other more aggressive openers that Afghanistan may have in their rich reserves. "

Rahul Malnad: "Rashid khan is arguably top t20 batter in this Afg camp. When rest batters aren't doing their job it makes no sense to keep Rashid below no.7, this is beyond my understanding. "