BAN vs AFG | Tigers win ODI series after routing Afghanistan by 88 runs

Afghanistan’s fate in the ODI series was sealed after they lost a do-or-die game against Bangladesh on Friday, 25 February. An 88-run victory for the Bangla Tigers means that they now have an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series and have completely stamped their authority against Afghanistan.

While the bowling department carried its stupendous form from the last game, today, it was the exceptional batting performance that stood out - something that is not said on a daily basis in reference to the Bangladesh side. Liton Das’ century along with Mushfiqur Rahim’s 86 off 93 balls paved the way for a huge score that more or less sealed the deal for the home side in the first innings itself.

Liton’s 136 off 126 balls had 16 boundaries and 2 sixes to his name, as the player looked to get back in form after his horrendous run at the World T20 tournament last year. His 202-run stand alongside Rahim took Bangladesh to a massive total of 306 runs for the loss of four wickets.

Returning to defend the match, Bangladesh scalped three wickets in the first 10 overs of the game sending Riaz Hassan, captain Hashmatullah Shahidi and Azmatullah Omarzai back in the hut.

The home team and their mastery over the conditions made life very difficult for the Afghan batters as they kept collapsing in desperation to score runs. Credit must be given to Rahmat Shah who did well to fend off the initial blast but ended up succumbing to Taskin Ahmed against his return spell in the 25th over.

Ahmed’s nip-backer went through Shah’s defence to clip the off stump bail and effect another collapse of the batting line-up. The visitors once again lost three wickets in a bunch to effectively wipe out their middle order and put themselves in an awful position by the end of 32 overs.

Panic set in thereafter and looking for runs and a rapid rate, Afghanistan subsequently lost Mohammad Nabi and Rashid Khan in a space of three overs. While Nabi (32 off 38) skied a loopy Mehidy Hasan delivery trying to look for a big shot, Rashid was clean bowled by a classic Mustafizur Rahman off cutter. With more than 100 runs required and two wickets remaining it was just a matter of time before this got wrapped up and it did in the first ball of the 46th over as Afif Hossain dismissed Fazalhaq Farroqui in his first ball of the match.

Liton Das was judged the man of the match for obvious reasons and Tamim Iqbal heaped praises on his batters. He acknowledged his bowlers for being fantastic through the two ODIs but stated that Bangladesh need to finish strong after getting such a brilliant partnership in the middle.

The series is now a dead rubber and Bangladesh would like to experiment for the last game on 28 February, before moving on to the T20I format - their worst in the recent times ahead of the T20 World Cup in Australia.