At the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Sunday, Bangladesh defeated Afghanistan by six wickets in their final Twenty20 encounter to win the two-match series 2-0.
In the rain-shortened game, Bangladesh successfully completed the 119 run target from 17 overs with five balls remaining.
The host team won the sole Test match but dropped the ODI series by a score of 2-1 thanks to a boundary by Shamim Hossain in the first delivery of the final over.
On the other side of the wicket, captain Shakib al Hasan, who had a critical role to play, was still unbeaten on 18 from 11 balls.
Bangladesh’s openers made the chase simple for them, scoring 53 runs off of 54 balls to reach 66 at the conclusion of the eighth over without losing a wicket.
Although Litton Kumer Das played some breathtaking strokes, the Bangladeshi batsmen appeared to lose their focus in the middle of the innings, as he could only manage to score one run off Azmatullah’s next delivery before being dismissed by Mujeeb ur Rahman in the first delivery of the 10th over, with a score of 35 off 36.
Two balls later, Afif Hossain, who had scored 24 off 20 with the help of two perfectly timed sixes, was out, putting the home team under pressure.
Azmatullah dismissed Najmul Hossain (4) in the following over, and more significantly, he only allowed six runs to be scored, bringing Bangladesh’s score to 76-3. The equation was 43 off 36 at that point.
However, Towhid Hriody, the star of the first game, added 31 runs to Shakib’s score from 21 balls, tipping the scales in the batting side’s favor.
After hitting a six in the fifteenth over off Azmatullah, Towhid was bowled out, but Shakib and Shamim saw to it that Bangladesh reached the shore without incident.
Earlier, Bangladesh performed well to hold the opposition to 116-7 thanks to their bowlers and fielders.
Despite not taking a wicket, left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed was the most productive bowler, allowing only 15 runs in four overs while scooping up three wickets and collecting 33 runs in his stride.
Shakib-al-Hasan, the captain, was also frugal, only allowing 15 runs in three overs while also taking two wickets.
The opening batsman for Afghanistan, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, was lost in the fifth ball of the first over, and his partner, Hazratullah Zazai, followed him two overs later. Together, they scored only four runs.
Although Nasum and Hasan Mahmud bowled tightly and the visitors were on 40-2 after 7.3 overs when the rain started, Mustafiz let up 13 runs in the sixth over.
When play resumed, Nasum continued to bowl well and would have been able to pick up wickets if Shakib and Litton Kumer Das hadn’t dropped Mohammad Nabi in back-to-back deliveries.
Tourists increased their run rate to above six when Mustafiz let up 15 runs in his second over, but Shakib took two wickets and restricted the run rate to five runs in the next over.
Azmatullah Omarzai and Karim Zanat played some shots in the middle overs, but Mustafiz only allowed three runs in the last over and Taskin only allowed seven in the last over to keep Afghanistan to under 120.
The best score was 25 by Azmatullah, while Zadran and Janat achieved 22 and 20, respectively.
