Bangladesh never won at Sharjah Cricket Stadium. Bangladesh played the match for the first time in 1990, the opponent was New Zealand. It started with a loss in the first match in Sharjah. Before today's (Wednesday) match, the red-green jersey holders have a losing record in all four matches played. Last lost in 1995 against Pakistan. After 29 years on Wednesday (6 November) against Afghanistan, the situation is the same. Bangladesh lost by a big margin of 92 runs in the 300th match of this venue at the historical ground of Sharjah due to the failure of the batsmen.
In recent times, the Bangladesh team is losing one match after another due to the failure of the batters. Batters of Bangladesh are having a very bad time this year. But it was expected that the scenario might change by playing in their favorite format ODI, but nothing changed. After 8 months, Nazmul Hossain Shanta's team played a big stumbling block against the Afghans, who were behind in the ranking. This resulted in the failure of the batsmen despite the brilliant bowling of Mostafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed to restrict Afghanistan to 235 runs.
236 runs is not a very difficult target in modern ODI cricket. Even though the team broke the opening pair by 12 runs, the start was not bad for Bangladesh. Nazmul Hossain Shanto and Soumya Sarkar were pulling the team together. Soumya got out with a pair of 53 runs from 54 balls. Soumya, who was playing, suddenly lost her focus. After Soumya's departure, captain Shanto was leading the team along with Mehedi Hasan Miraj.
But suddenly the ghost hit Shantar! Mohammad Nabi's delivery outside the off-stump, trying to sweep it from quite a distance, lifted the ball into the sky. Hashmatullah Shahidi took control of the ball in three tries and confirmed the departure of the Bangladesh captain. After a calm departure at the head of 120 runs, it was basically wrapped up. Bangladesh kept losing one wicket after another. Experienced Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah were also dismissed for clumsy shots.
Batters of Bangladesh came to study Rashid Khan, Mohammad Nabi or Fazal Haque Farooqui. But the test was against Afghan spinner Mohammad Ghazanfar. It seems that the Bangladesh batters got the question out of the syllabus!
Bangladesh lost three wickets at 120 and were all out for 143 runs. Bangladesh lost eight wickets for just 23 runs. Bangladesh's batting lineup collapsed under the whirlwind of Afghan spinner Ghazanfar. The Afghan right-arm spinner confirmed Afghanistan's victory by bowling Shariful Islam. He got to play the sixth match of his career and met Fifer for the first time. He is the hero of taking 6 wickets for 26 runs to advance the series to Afghanistan. The man of the match has also done great bowling.
Where is the end of this failure of Bangladeshi batters? Same situation against South Africa at home after the India series. It was expected that Bangladesh will be able to overcome this period of batting failure against the Afghans. But nothing has happened, Bangladesh is spinning in the circle of failure again and again due to the irresponsible cricket of the batsmen. Skipper Nazmul Hossain wanted to win all six ODIs before the Shanto Champions Trophy. But after losing the first match, he drew alarm in the rest of the matches. Even if the batsmen cannot recover from their failure, the match will not be won.
Because the bowlers have always been doing their job properly. The power of the bowlers has been noticed in today's match as well. Sharjah Cricket Stadium won a great record from the first one-day toss of Bangladesh-Afghanistan. As the first venue, the stadium touched the milestone of 300th match in international cricket. This is where the pacers of Bangladesh fired cannons in the heart of the hot desert on Wednesday. Bangladesh pacers bowling, Afghan batters started seeing mustard flowers in their eyes. From 30 runs for 1 wicket, the Afghans instantly became 35 runs for 4 wickets.
Hashmatullah and Gulbadin Naib tried to increase the pair in the fifth wicket. Taskin brought back Gulbadin (22) in the 20th over and gave the team a break-through. Afghans lost 5 wickets for 71 runs. In the sixth wicket, Hashmatullah and Nabi's 122-ball 102-run pair mainly resisted. Hashmatullah was dismissed for 52 runs, but Nabi was on the way to a century. Nabi fell victim to Taskin in the 48th over while trying to increase the team's score. The Afghan all-rounder got out after playing an innings of 84 runs off 79 balls. By relying on the bat of these two people, Afghanistan made a collection of 235 runs.
The way the Bangladeshi bowlers started, they could not continue the trend in the middle overs. On this occasion, the Prophet and Hashmatullah formed a great pair. Taskin and Mostafiz took four wickets each. Shariful Islam took a wicket.
