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Afghanistan create history with thumping series win over Bangladesh

Asghar Stanikzai
Afghanistan Captain Asghar Stanikzai
©REUTERS/Andrew Biraj
By Saksham Mishra

Afghanistan (145-6) beat Bangladesh (144-6) in the 3rd and the final match of the three match T20I series by 1 run, in what was a nail biting finish, to clean sweep the series 3-0.

SCORECARD

Man of the match Asghar Stanikzai

Batting first, Afghanistan got off to a cautious start with Mohammad Shahzad (26) and Usman Ghani (19) adding 55 runs for the first wicket. All along, there were short but useful contributions from the Afghanistan batting line up with Captain Asghar Stanikzai (27), Samiullah (33) Shenwari and Najibullah Zadran (15) chipping in.
However, the innings never got off and lacked the final flourish. As a result, Afghanistan could only manage 145 for 6 in the 20 overs.
The pick of the bowlers for Bangladesh were Nazmul Islam and Abu Jayed who bagged 2 wickets each.


Coming in to bat, it was all about respect for Bangladesh as they had already lost the series 0-2. Chasing a relatively small total, the result was less of a reflection of the brilliant Afghanistan bowling and more of the frenzied running between the wickets from Bangladesh. 3 batsmen - opener Liton Das (12), Soumya Sarkar (15) and Mohammadullah (45) - lost their wickets to run outs.
Tamim Iqbal (5) was the first wicket to fall who was scalped by Mujib ur Rahman (4-25-1). Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammadullah then played standout knocks for Bangladesh scoring 46 and 45 respectively.

Mohammadullah played a good hand and took Bangladesh very close to victory with 8 runs needed of Rashid Khan's (4-24-1) final over. All the same, Rashid proved his potential yet again as he did not allow the batsmen to score freely.
4 runs were required off the last ball and Shafiqullah, who has been brilliant with the bat in the series, showed some great feilding skills at long on. This resulted in the run out of Mohammadullah as Bangladesh fell short by 1 run.

As a result, Afghanistan created history by clean sweeping Bangladesh 3-0 in the T20I series. The team has shown a lot of promise over the past few years. It would be another overwhelming moment for the team as it takes on India in the inaugural one-off test strarting on the 14th of June.

@Cricket World