Bangladesh opens their account with a huge victory in one of the first games of Asia cup thrashing UAE by 96 runs riding on the century of skipper Mohammad Ashraful at Gaddafi stadium of Lahore yesterday.
Ashraful and Roqibul ensured the score of 300 runs for Bangladesh to build up a safe position for winning against the inexperienced UAE which is an associated member of ICC. Their batting made Emirates helpless in the field while Ashraful made his highest score of 109 and Roqibul made 83 runs from just 63 balls.
Ashraful said about his hundred in the post match presentation, “I just wanted to carry on my batting as long as possible.” He also said that, “we can beat Sri Lanka if we can play our best”. Captain of UAE Saqib Ali confessed the good batting of Bangladesh and said, “The partnership of Ashraful-Roqibul took the game away from us”.
Chasing a total of 300/8 UAE started their innings very aggressively but they lost their wickets in a regular basis and all out at 204 before in 46th over. Abdur Razzak took 3/20 to gain 100 wickets in ODI matches as a third Bangladeshi player. Khurram Khan played a very good innings of 78 runs but it just decreased the margin of defeat for UAE.
Mohammad Ashraful adjudged man of the match for his brilliant knock.
Photo: collected