Match Details
Omarzai bowled quite brilliantly and troubled the duo with his pace and skiddy nature. He got his deserved breakthrough when Shakib Al Hasan was late into a shot and ended up chopping a skiddy delivery outside off onto his stumps. With the score reading 104/2, Bangladesh again needed a bit of rebuilding from Mushfiqur Rahim and Liton Das. The home team lost Rahim and Yasir Ali Chowdhury early and all of a sudden they were under a lot of pressure.
Liton Das managed to complete another well-deserved half-century but eventually fell short of a century by 14 runs. He batted well for his 86 but had to perish in an attempt to up the ante. Wickets kept falling in clusters in the back end and Bangladesh didn’t even manage to play out their full quota of 50 overs eventually getting bowled out for 192 in the 47th over. For Afghanistan, Rashid Khan was the pick of the bowlers finishing with figures of 3/37 while experienced campaigner Mohammad Nabi chipped in with a couple.
Both the batsmen looked in immaculate touch as they shared a partnership of 78 runs in 15.2 overs before the dismissal of Hassan. It was Shakib Al Hasan who provided the maiden breakthrough but from there on it was all Afghanistan. It was an exceptional display of batsmanship by the duo of Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah. They weathered the storm in the initial stages and then started taking the Bangladesh bowlers on.
It was a delectable batting display from the duo and none of the Bangladesh bowlers had any answers in front of their batsmanship. Left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam did trouble the duo on certain occasions. Gurbaz was dropped twice in two overs by Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad and went onto cash in as he completed a well-deserved century to seal the match for Afghanistan.
Rahmat Shah was dismissed by Mehidy Hasan but by then Afghanistan was well on course for a well-deserved victory. Skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi was also undone by a good delivery by Mehidy Hasan but it was all too little too late for Bangladesh. Fittingly Rahmanullah Gurbaz struck the winning runs for Afghanistan as they reached the victory target in the 41st over.