Asia Cup 2023: Rating the best bowling performances in Group Stage

The Asia Cup 2023 group stage came to an end on September 5, 2023, and while one game of the Super 4s has also been played, the six teams in two groups had some entertaining moments for their fans.  

For the Super 4s stage, India and Pakistan qualified from Group A, which saw Nepal getting eliminated after losing both their matches, while Bangladesh and Sri Lanka made it into the Super 4s from Group B, with Afghanistan getting eliminated.

One of the reasons these teams managed to make it into the final four was because of their bowlers. Bowlers are the ones who restrict the opposition to a low score if their team is bowling first and help them bowl out the opposition if they are defending a total. There were some very good bowling performances in the Asia Cup 2023 group stage, and we look at a few of them.

Here is rating the best bowling performances in the Asia Cup 2023 group stage:

3/36 - Shoriful Islam, Bangladesh vs Afghanistan - 6/10

Shoriful Islam’s figures of 3/36 came in the match between Bangladesh and Afghanistan, which was played in Lahore. Bangladesh batted first after winning the toss and put up a massive 334/5 on the board thanks to centuries from Mehidy Hasan Miraz (112 retd hurt) and Najmul Hossain Shanto (104), with skipper Shakib Al Hasan contributing 32* in 18 balls.

With such a massive total for comfort, the Bangladeshi bowlers kept the Afghanistani batters under pressure. Shoriful Islam landed the first blow, as he got the dangerous Rahmanullah Gurbaz for just one run.

He returned in his second spell and accounted for Afghan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi, who scored a brilliant 51. And then, when Gulbadin Naib was looking dangerous down the order after hitting a six and a four, Shoriful also got his wicket, as Afghanistan later folded for just 245 runs.