Shoriful Islam, Litton Das Help Bangladesh From Clean Sweep Against Afghanistan

After winning the toss, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first where he wanted to replicate batting performance from the second ODI.

Litton Das in action.

Source : Getty

The final ODI between Bangladesh and Afghanistan series was played on Tuesday, July 11 at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram where Afghanistan stepped into the game after taking an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series. Bangladesh on the other hand was looking to avoid a series whitewash. After winning the toss, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi won the toss and elected to bat first where he wanted to replicate batting performance from the second ODI.

But then, Bangla Tigers crushed their hopes with Shoriful Islam who came up with an early blow for his team early and got rid of last game’s centurion Ibrahim Zadran (1). He then went on to clean up Rahmat Shah for a four-ball duck in the same over and left Afghanistan reeling on 3/2 after three overs.

The massive blow came in the sixth over of the game when  Taskin Ahmed dismissed the second game’s Player of the Match Rahmanullah Gurbaz (6). Shoriful Islam was again been called to bowl and he got the prized wicket of Mohammad Nabi (1). However,  Azmatullah Omarzai gave his best to stabilize the innings with his half-century (56 off 71) but then he failed to sail his team's boat as Afghanistan got restricted to just 126 in 45.2 overs. Bangladesh’ Islam was the star with the ball, returning with the figures of 4/21 in nine overs while Taskin Ahmed (2/23) and Taijul Islam (2/33) picked up two wickets each.

In reply, Bangladesh started by sustaining an early blow in the form of  Mohammad Naim who got out for an eight-ball duck. Farooqi then scalped the wicket of Najmul Hossain in the seventh over of the game, giving the hosts their second breakthrough. After two early blows, skipper Litton Das scored a fifty and built a crucial stat of 61 runs alongside Shakib Al Hasan who made 39 runs.

Mohammad Nabi of Afghanistan came in with Shakib’s wicket in the 18th over but then it was too late as Towrid Hridoy (22*) and Litton Das took their team home with an unbeaten 40-run stand and Bangladesh chased down the target in 23.3 overs and won the match by seven wickets.