Sharjah International Cricket Stadium became a waste for Bangladesh. Bangladesh played the first match in Sharjah in 1990. After the loss in the debut, before today's match, the Bangladesh team played 6 more ODIs and 3 T20Is. In all of which the red-green jersey holders lost. Finally, Apaya venue looked towards Bangladesh. Nazmul Hussain Shantor's team won in Sharjah for the first time in the second match of the series against Afghanistan on Saturday. Vasti's win at the historic venue leveled the series.
The 68-run win in Sharjah on Saturday was something special. Because earlier Bangladesh played five ODIs against New Zealand, Australia, Pakistan, India and Sri Lanka at this venue. In all the matches there was only story of loss. This time, before the Afghanistan series, there was an expectation that the cycle of defeat would be broken in Sharjah. But in the first match of the series, Shantar's team had to crash against Afghanistan. After that loss, there was not much expectation about today's match. However, on Saturday, Bangladesh achieved victory in Sharjah with a brilliant performance in batting-bowling-fielding. With this victory, the last match of the series became an unwritten final. The three-match ODI series is now tied at 1-1.
Batting failures have had a very uncomfortable time this year. After winning the ODI series against Sri Lanka earlier in the year, Bangladesh had won only two Tests in Pakistan. The rest of the matches were disappointing performances. The performance of Bangladesh's batsmen in the Test against Sri Lanka, Test and T20 against India and the two-match Test series against South Africa at home was disappointing. This dismal performance by the batsmen was also staged against the Afghans in Sharjah. Despite a great start in the first match, they lost by a big margin. Bangladesh had no choice but to win in the second match on Saturday. To save the series, the red-green jersey holders had to win. On Saturday, the Bangladesh team won comfortably at the historical venue with the best in batting and bowling. Batting first, Bangladesh scored 252 runs. In reply, the Afghans were bowled out for 184 runs. That gave the visitors a comfortable victory of 68 runs.
Bangladesh won the toss and decided to bat at the Sharjah International Cricket Stadium. There was fear that the red-green jersey holders would pay a huge price for batting failure again. Bangladesh's two openers started well in the first three overs. But Tanjid Hasan Tamim (22) got out while playing the top performer of the previous match, right-arm spinner Mohammad Ghazanfar, at mid-wicket. After that, Soumya Sarkar and captain Nazmul Hossain Shanto were moving towards the big pair. None of the Afghan bowlers could break the pair. But Soumya was unlucky to be victimized by Rashid Khan in the umpire's call. Had he taken a review, he would have been saved from LBW! After breaking the partnership of 71 runs, Shanto made a partnership of 53 runs with Miraj. After scoring 22 runs from 33 balls, the vice-captain Miraj did not understand the line of the ball and returned to Sajghar as a clean bowler.
Due to the way Bangladesh was batting, at one time it seemed that the score of the Bangladesh team would touch 300. But after Tawheed Hriday (11) and Mahmudullah Riyad (3) returned to run, the team fell under severe pressure. The team looked at the experienced Mahmudullah but he failed completely. Mahmudullah's highest run in the last four innings today is 3! Mahmudullah's failure is putting the team under more pressure.
Meanwhile, captain Shanto took extra risks to set the wheel of runs in motion and gave the wicket to Nangelia Kharote. The highest 76 runs for the team came from the bat of Shantar. The team leader finished his innings with 6 fours and 1 six off 119 balls. After Shantar's dismissal, Bangladesh was in danger of getting out quickly. But anointed Zaker Ali Anik's 27-ball 37 and Nasum Ahmed's 24-ball 25-run innings, returning to the national team almost a year later, helped Bangladesh lose 7 wickets and post a collection of 252 runs.
Among the Afghan bowlers, Nangelia has taken three wickets at Kharo. Rashid Khan and Mohammad Ghazanfar, the hero of the previous match, took two wickets each.
After the return of opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz (2) to the target of 253 runs, relief returned to the Bangladesh camp. But the relief didn't last long. Another opener Sediqullah Atal and Rahmat Shah relieved Afghanistan of pressure by making a 52-run partnership for the second wicket. After a year, Nasum broke the pair by playing a match. Mirage sent Sediqullah (39) back 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 in the 29th over.
Nasum sealed the match by gifting Azmatullah Omarzai a golden duck on the second ball of the next over. In the same over, Rahmat was run out due to a misunderstanding between Gulbadin Naib and Rahmat. He returned with 52 runs off 76 balls. Bangladesh took full control of the match by picking up 3 wickets in 6 balls. Afghanistan could not return to the match from there. They were all out for 183 runs in 43.3 overs.
Among the Bangladeshi bowlers, Nasum took three wickets for 28 runs. Miraz and Mostafiz took two wickets each. Apart from this, Shariful and Taskin took one wicket each.
