Bangladesh secured a comprehensive six-wicket victory over Afghanistan in the second Twenty20 international to clinch the two-match series 2-0 on Sunday.
Liton’s 67-run opening stand with Afif Hossain’s 24 helped Bangladesh get to 119-4 in 16.1 overs. This was after Taskin Ahmed’s 3-33 helped the team hold Afghanistan to 116-7 in the 17 overs that were left after rain cut the game short.
Bangladesh won the first game of the series by two wickets on Friday, and they won the second game on Sunday by the same score. Both games were played in the northeastern city of Sylhet. This was Bangladesh’s third straight T20 series win, and their first against Afghanistan in three tries.
This year, they beat the world champions, England, 3-0, and Scotland, 2-1.
Off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman gave Afghanistan a chance to win the series by getting rid of Liton and Afif in three balls after their long partnership. Then, Azmatullah Omarzai bowled Najmul Hossain for four.
But captain Shakib Al Hasan and young Towhid Hridoy put together 31 runs to stop the team from falling further.
“We lost couple of wickets, but given the start we had, we were always ahead,” Shakib said at the post-match presentation ceremony.
“Given the ground conditions, I knew their spinners would have it tough.”
Afghanistan captain Rashid Khan refused to make any excuses.
“Weather is not an excuse for a team. T20 should be decided on skills and we were not good enough there, especially in batting,” he said.
Towhid scored 19 points before Omarzai got rid of him. Omarzai finished with 2-17, but Shakib’s 18 points kept Bangladesh in the game.
Shakib also helped with the ball and got 2-15. Mustafizur Rahman got 2-30. When Bangladesh chose to bowl first, they made it hard for Afghanistan.
Rain stopped play for an hour and a half after only seven overs, so the officials shortened the game to 17 overs per team.
Afghanistan was already in trouble when Rahmanullah Gurbaz (eight runs) and Hazratullah Zazai (four runs) were both taken out by Taskin.
When play started again, Mustafizur got rid of Mohammad Nabi for 16. In the next over, Shakib got rid of both Ibrahim Zadran (22) and Najibullah Zadran, bringing Afghanistan’s score down to 67-5.
But Omarzai and Karim Janat scored 42 runs together to get the innings back on track.
Mustafizur ended Omarzai’s 21-ball run of 25, making him hit the ball to deep third man where Shamim Hossain caught it.
In the last over, Taskin got Janat out for 22.
Bangladesh won the one-off Test match by a record 546 runs, but Afghanistan won the three-match one-day international series 2-1.
