Bangladesh crush Afghanistan in World Cup opener

Bangladesh have got their World Cup campaign off to a flier with a scintillating 105-run victory against Afghanistan in their Pool A opener.

Three early breakthroughs knocked the wind out of the Afghan chase after a record 114-run World Cup stand for Bangladesh between Shakib Al Hasan and Mushfiqur Rahim helped them post a competitive 267 on the board.

With Wednesday's win - Bangladesh's biggest in the World Cup matches - the Tigers avenged last year's Asia Cup defeat on the home turf.

Skipper Mashrafe bin Mortaza gave the Tigers two early scalps to push the Afghans on the back foot at the Manuka Oval in Canberra.

The strapping paceman then came back to remove Afghan skipper Mohammad Nabi (44) caught in the deep just when he was looking dangerous to return an impressive 3 for 20.

The Afghans fell behind the asking rate as Bangladesh struck timely blows and their innings folded up for 162 with 7.1 overs to spare.

Earlier, Bangladesh coasted to 267 in 50 overs, thanks to brilliant knocks by Mushfiq (71) and Shakib (63).

This was Bangladesh's sixth ODI win in a row since Nov 21, 2014 and they have now won four of their last six WC games since Feb 25, 2011.

Shakib became the first Bangladesh batsman to storm into the 4,000 run-getters club with his brilliant half century at the Manuka Oval Wednesday.

Bangladesh pacers Mashrafe and Rubel Hossain accounted for three early wickets, reducing the Afghans to 3 for 3 in as many overs.

They would have been in further trouble had wicketkeeper Rahim and Shakib held on to difficult skiers off paceman Taskin Ahmed.

Former Indian skipper Sourav Ganguly was all praise for young Taskin as the 19-year paceman hit the deck hard and maintained niggling length.

"He is a great find for Bangladesh," Ganguly said in Star Sports.

The debutants never recovered from there and folded for 162 in 42.5 overs.

A 62-run fourth-wicket stand and 58-run sixth-wicket partnership only delayed Afghanistan's huge defeat. Samiullah Shenwari (42) joined skipper Nabi to put up some fight.

The Tigers, opting to bat, got off to a slow start in the face of disciplined bowling.

Openers Tamim Iqbal (19 off 42) and Anamul Haque (29 off 55) were sluggish to start with.

Mirwais Ashraf removed Tamim and ended his 47-run opening stand with Anamul in the 14th over. Ashraf dismissed Anamul soon to put a bit of pressure on Bangladesh.

Mahmudullah Riyad (23) and Soumya Sarkar (28) forged a 50-run partnership to push up the strike rate but both departed in quick succession.

Reduced to 119 for 4, Shakib teamed up with Mushfiq to plunder 114 runs off 93 balls. Their fluent batting raised Bangladesh's ambition of posting an imposing score.

Both laced their innings with six boundaries and a six each.

After losing Shakib and Mushfiq in quick succession Bangladesh failed to stretch their score too far losing their tail to some senseless slogging.

They lost five wickets for 34 runs in the last 5 overs.

But Bangladesh's pace battery pulled the Tigers back in the game with Mashrafe swinging both ways and Rubel and Taskin bowling flat out.

Rubel went off the field momentarily after an awkward fall when he took a blinder at square leg off Mahmudullah to send Mangal back. He, however, came back to bowl again.

After Nabi holed out in the deep to a Mashrafe away swinger, the end was not much delayed and wicketkeeper Mushfique performed the coup de grace by running out Aftab Alam to end the innings.

"It's a great feeling," said Mushfiq, the Man of the Match, after the match.

"Credit also goes to the openers. They didn't get the runs, but it is not that easy up front. They faced out important overs."

Captain Mashrafe said, “Definitely the first match is important and we have set the tone.

"We had a reasonable start today. Mushy and Shakib were brilliant. In a match where you have some pressure. I am happy we adapted. And thank you all the supporters."

The Manuka Oval was a sea of red and green with thousands of Bangladesh supporters vociferously supporting the Tigers, but Afghan fans were also seen in some blocks.