On day three of the one-off Test match between Afghanistan and Bangladesh, which took place at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Friday, Afghanistan lost two wickets in the final session of the day followed by the loss of their skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi, who walked off retired hurt after getting hit by a bouncer on his helmet.
Despite these losses, Afghanistan were able to prevent any further damage from occurring.
After declaring their second innings on 425 for four, Bangladesh established a formidable challenge for the outsiders by setting a target of 662 runs for them to reach before they can win the match.
Both of Afghanistan’s openers, Ibrahim Zadran and Abdul Malik, were bowled out by the Bangladeshi pacers Shoriful Islam and Taskin Ahmed inside the first two overs of their team’s innings. As a result, the visitors were two wickets down for seven runs. Bangladesh’s openers got off to a strong start with the ball.
Shoriful had Zadran leg before with the very first delivery of the game, while Taskin had Malik nicked off for five runs in the second over of the innings.
Shahidi and Rahmat Shah put up a partnership of 19 runs in an effort to right the ship before the former was bowled by Taskin Ahmed’s bouncer. After that, Rahmat Shah put together another partnership worth 19 runs with Nasir Jamal to see out the day, which was cut short owing to poor lighting conditions.
As of the 32nd ball of their innings, Rahmat and Nasir were both undefeated on their respective scores of 10, and Afghanistan need a further 617 runs to win the match.