DHARAMSALA, India, Oct 7, (AP): Mehidy Hasan Miraz starred with bat and ball in hilly Dharamsala as Bangladesh crushed Afghanistan by six wickets at the Cricket World Cup on Saturday. After Bangladesh won the toss and elected to field, Afghanistan was skittled out for 156 with all-rounder Mehidy picking up 3-25 and skipper Shakib Al Hasan claiming 3-30. Mehidy then scored 57 runs in 73 balls as Bangladesh made 158-4 in 34.4 overs, easing home with 15.2 overs to spare.

Afghanistan made a good start to their innings with Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran (22) putting on 47 for the first wicket. Gurbaz added another 36 with Rahmat Shah (18) before Shakib struck twice to remove Zadran and Shah. The turning point came when Mehidy dismissed Hashmatullah Shahidi for 18 as the skipper went for a slog. Four balls later, Mustafizur Rahman removed the in-form Gurbaz for 47 with a slower ball and the Afghanistan slide continued, with the last three wickets all falling on 156. Bangladesh then made a poor start to its innings, Tanzid Hasan going for five and Litton Das for 13. Mehidy, though, added 97 in 129 balls with Najmul Hossain Shanto for the third wicket to steer Bangladesh toward its target. Naveen-ul-Haq removed Mehidy thanks to a brilliant catch at mid-off from Shah, but Shanto stayed until the end, scoring 59 not out off 83 balls including three fours and a six. Pakistan overcame a top-order batting hiccup with sharp pace bowling to beat the Netherlands by 81 runs.

All-rounder Bas de Leede picked up 4-62 with his seam bowling to bowl out Pakistan for 286 with an over to spare - a total that captain Scott Edwards thought was a par total after he had won the toss and elected to chase on a dry wicket. De Leede then kept the Netherlands in the chase with a knock of 67 off 68 balls before Pakistan struck through express fast bowler Haris Rauf and Shaheen Afridi to bowl out the Dutchmen for 205 in 41 overs. Rauf picked up 3-43, Afridi claimed 1-37 and Hasan Ali bagged 2-37 in his first ODI in more than a year after being recalled for the World Cup when Naseem Shah was ruled out with a shoulder injury. Vikramjit Singh made a fighting 52 off 67 balls and combined in a 70-run stand with de Leede as both kept challenging the Pakistan spinners in the middle overs. Legspinner Shadab Khan (1-45), who has had a slump in his bowling form since the Asia Cup, struggled to find his lengths early but broke through when Singh holed out in the deep while going for an unnecessary big shot against the leggy’s short ball.

Left-arm Rauf then took the sting out of the Netherlands’ chase, claiming the wickets of Teja Nidamanuru and Edwards in the space of three balls. Rauf should have had three wickets off four balls, but Iftikhar Ahmed dropped a regulation catch of Saqib Zulfiqar at the lone slip. With de Leede running out of partners, the allrounder tried to guide leftarm spinner Mohammad Nawaz and had his off stump knocked back before Logan van Beek made an unbeaten run-a-ball 28 to narrow the margin of defeat. The Netherlands, which qualified for the World Cup with a dramatic Super Over win over the West Indies, showed little rustiness from their victory three months ago and put Pakistan in trouble at 38-3 inside the batting powerplay. Out-of-form Fakhar Zaman offered a tame return catch to van Beek and the world’s top-ranked ODI batter Babar had an unusual struggle for 18 balls in scoring 5 runs before pulling offspinner Colin Ackermann to short midwicket. Imam-ul-Haq was caught at fine leg when he pulled Paul van Meekeren as the Netherlands kept coming at Pakistan’s top-order batters inside the first 10 overs. But Saud Shakeel and Mohammad Rizwan, both playing in their first World Cup, scripted Pakistan’s revival with a 120-run partnership as Edwards kept rotating his bowlers without success. Shakeel used his feet well against the spinners in a composed innings of 68 off 52 balls that featured nine fours and a six. Rizwan made 68 off 75 balls.