Cricket Highlights, 12 July: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan (3rd ODI)

Bangladesh vs Afghanistan (3rd ODI)

Bangladesh has survived getting whitewashed by defeating Afghanistan by 7 wickets in the last ODI of the series thanks to Litton Das’ brilliant fifty after Shoriful Islam’s devastating bowling. However, Afghanistan succeeded in the series by 2-1.

After winning the toss and batting first at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Tuesday (July 11), Afghanistan’s innings ended after scoring only 126 runs in 45.2 overs. Chasing an easy target, the Tigers reached the port of victory after losing 3 wickets having 26.3 overs in hand.

However, the Tigers did not get off to a good start chasing the target. Mohammad Naim returned to the dressing room for 2 runs of the team. Despite facing 8 balls, the opener could not open the personal run book. Najmul Hossain Shanto walked back to the dressing room with the team’s 28 runs. He returned with 11 runs off 15 balls. Both of the lefty batters were bowled by Fazalhaq Farooqi.  

After that, Shakib Al Hasan and Litton started responding well to the Afghan bowlers by resisting the third-wicket pair. 61 runs came in the pair of the two. When the team was just 38 runs away from victory, Shakib failed to make a proper bat-ball connection while trying to play a pull shot off Mohammad Nabi. Hashmatullah Shahidi took the catch when the ball floated in the air. With the help of 5 fours, Shakib made 39 runs from 39 balls.

But before returning to the pavilion, the world’s best all-rounder Shakib had set a unique record. He has reached the milestone of 14 thousand runs in three formats in international cricket. Earlier, Shakib held the record of taking 600 wickets across three formats with the ball. Now he has 674 wickets to his name.

By doing this, Shakib invented another new record. He is the only all-rounder in the world to get 600+ wickets with 14 thousand runs in three formats.  

Litton, however, completed the rest of the work with Towhid Hridoy. On the way to bring victory to the team, he scored 3 fours and 2 sixes in 57 balls to pick up the tenth fifty of his career. In the end, Litton remained unbeaten with 53 runs off 60 balls. Hridoy was unbeaten with 22 runs off 19 balls.

Earlier, Afghanistan was able to score only 126 runs after losing all wickets in 45.2 overs on Shoriful’s bowling prowess. He gave the hosts a breakthrough on the first ball of the third over of the innings. His length ball was pitched to mid-wicket with a light outswing and went outside the off stump. Ibrahim Zadran (1) was trying to go at it. The ball hit the edge of the bat and fell into the hands of Mushfiqur Rahim behind the wicket.

Afghanistan’s first wicket fell by 3 runs. However, Shoriful did not stop there. He hit twice in the same over. The left-handed pacer sent Afgans’ one-down batter Rahmat Shah (0) back to the dressing room on the fifth ball of the over. As a result, the visitors lost two wickets for the team’s 3 runs. Then Rahmanullah Gurbaz (6) was caught behind the wicket by another pacer Taskin Ahmed after the team scored 14 runs. 

In the 9th over of the innings, Nabi was trapped lbw by a great good length ball from Shoriful. He got out after playing 9 balls and scoring 1 run. Shakib took the fifth wicket of the Afghans at the team’s 32 runs. This time Najibullah Zadran (10) fell into the LBW trap.

Hashmatullah was playing by holding one edge. Taijul Islam broke his resistance. The Afghan skipper lost his leg stump while playing a reverse shot. He scored 22 runs off 54 balls. 6 Afghan batsmen returned to the pavilion after scoring 53 runs for the team.  

Azmatullah Omarzai took the responsibility of pulling the team out of this extreme disaster. He played safely from one end till the end of the innings. Azmatullah played the highest innings of 56 runs for the team. The rest of the batsmen could not survive the bowling cannon of the Tigers.

Shoriful Islam snapped up the highest number of 4 wickets at the cost of 21 runs. Besides, Taskin Ahmed and Taijul Islam took 2 wickets each. Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz took 1 wicket each.

Earlier, Bangladesh lost the first match of the series due to the D/L method by 17 runs. And the Tigers lost the series against the Afghans for the first time after losing the second match by a big margin of 142 runs. Next Friday (July 14), these two teams will face each other in a two-match T20 series at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium.

Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Scoreboard

Afghanistan – 126/10 (45.2)

Bangladesh – 129/3 (23.3)

Result – Bangladesh won by 7 wickets

Player of the match – Shoriful Islam

Player of the series – Fazalhaq Farooqi

Fazalhaq Farooqi

Bangladesh vs Afghanistan Playing Xis