The One-Day International (ODI) series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan has now come to a close, as the home side of Bangladesh was able to give the visitors a resounding defeat by seven wickets in today’s third and final ODI in Chattogram.
After suffering two consecutive losses and dealing with the drama surrounding Tamim Iqbal’s retirement, the Tigers showed that they meant business on the day in question by conducting themselves and the proceedings in all departments with full authority, lead by bowler Shoriful Islam, who collected a four-wicket haul.
The tourists, who won the toss and elected to bat first, were unable to recover from an early batting collapse and were bowled out for 126, which was their lowest One-Day International total ever against Bangladesh.
Middle-order hitter Azmatullah Omarzai scored the most runs for the visitors with 56 off of 71 deliveries. On the other hand, Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Ibrahim Zadran, who scored hundreds in the last encounter, were among the seven Afghan batters who failed to hit double figures.
The visitors had a difficult time adjusting to the pace and bounce of the pitch from the very beginning, and players like Taskin Ahmed and Taijul Islam, who had both recently returned to the team, were able to take two wickets off of it.
In the meantime, Shakib Al Hasan had amazing numbers of 10-1-13-1 and joined the New Zealand icon Daniel Vettori to become the second-highest ODI wicket-taker as a left-arm spinner, with 305 scalps. Shakib Al Hasan joined Daniel Vettori as the second-highest ODI wicket-taker as a left-arm spinner. Mehedi Hasan Miraz, another spinner, was also successful in taking a wicket.
In their pursuit of a meager total, the Tigers were dealt an early setback when Naim Sheikh was dismissed. Sheikh, who had previously struggled to make an impression, was dismissed for nothing off eight balls. Even though Nazmul Hossain Shanto had a poor performance as well, the game was won by the hosts thanks to Liton Das and Shakib Al Hasan’s 61-run partnership for the third wicket. This put the hosts in complete control of the game.
Liton went on to get his 10th one-day international half-century after Shakib was dismissed after having a run-a-ball score of 39. The Bangladesh stand-in skipper stayed undefeated on 53 after playing 60 balls, and he was well joined by Towhid Hridoy, who scored 22 not out after playing 19 balls, as the Tigers cruised to win with 159 balls to spare. This was the fifth-highest margin of victory for them in terms of balls remaining in the second innings.
Beginning on Friday, July 14, the two teams will compete against one another in a Twenty20 International series at Sylhet, which will consist of two matches.