After the return of opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (2) off the ball of Taskin Ahmed, the victory was tilted towards Bangladesh. But another opener Sediqullah Atal and Rahmat Shah relieved Afghanistan of pressure by making a pair of 52 runs in the second wicket.
Nasum Ahmed brought relief to Bangladesh by breaking that pair. Mehdi Hasan Miraj sent back Sediqullah (39) with a great catch. After that, Rahmat Shah made a partnership of 48 runs with captain Hasmatullah Shahidi for the third wicket. Mostafizur Rahman broke the pair under pressure. Shahidi caught Shariful Islam in the last ball of the 29th over of the innings.
Nasum sealed the match by gifting Azmatullah Omarzai a golden duck on the second ball of the next over. The Bangladeshi spinner appealed for LBW against Gulbadin Naib on the fifth ball of the same over. However, although Gulbadin survived, Rahmat was run out due to a misunderstanding in the same over. He returned with 52 runs off 76 balls. Afghanistan is in danger after losing 3 wickets in 6 balls. Chasing the target of 252 runs, Afghanistan has scored 119 runs in 30 overs with the loss of 5 wickets till writing this report. Gulbadin (0) and Mohammad Nabi (0) in batting.
Bangladesh need 5 wickets and Afghanistan need 134 runs to win the second ODI of the series in Sharjah. If they lose this match, Afghanistan will clinch the series with one match left. Bangladesh scored 252 runs for 7 wickets thanks to captain Nazmul Hossain Shantar's 76 runs after winning the toss and batting. This score would not have happened if the tail batters did not stand up. Anointed Zaker Ali Anik and Nasum's great batting capitalized the fight.
Zaker hit a straight six on the last ball of the innings to cross the team's score by two and a half hundred. Before that he had a head injury. But still did not give up. Played an unbeaten innings of 37 runs off 27 balls with 1 four and 3 sixes. He made a partnership of 46 runs from 41 balls with Nasum for the seventh wicket. Nasum scored 25 runs off 2 sixes in 24 balls.
Earlier, Bangladesh was under pressure after the dismissal of Shanto and Mahmudullah Riyad (3) in the first and fifth balls of the 41st over of the innings by spinner Nangelia Kharot. Both caught on the boundary. Zaker and Nasum handled the pressure very well after their quick exit. In the 47th over of Fazalhaq Farooq's innings, Zaker hit 2 sixes and 1 four for 18 runs and put the Afghans under pressure.
Bangladesh made a great start in batting. But Tanjid Hasan Tamim (22) returned with a glimpse of the storm. Then Shanto made a partnership of 71 runs with another opener Soumya Sarkar (35) for the second wicket. The Bangladesh captain was hoping for a century. But he gave up the catch to reduce the run gap with the ball. Shanto returned with 77 runs off 119 balls with 6 fours and 1 six. His first 30 runs came off 35 balls. But it took 82 balls to score the next 42 runs.
