Afghanistan captain Hashmatullah Shahidi was elated to win an ODI game in grassy wicket, which Bangladesh prepared to neutralize their much-vaunted spin attack.
The Afghan spinners – Rashid Khan (3-37) and Mohammad Nabi (2-29) shared five wickets between them as Bangladesh were bowled out for 192 in 46.5 overs.
Afghanistan then rode on a brilliant 106 not out of Rahmanullah Gurbaz to hunt down the target with 59 balls remaining and won the game by seven wickets.
Thanks to the victory, Afghanistan avoided the clean sweep to make the series score line 2-1 and also gained 10 valuable Super League points.
“It was a grassy wicket but our spinners were top class. Rashid and Nabi showed their class,” an elated Shahidi said after the match. He also praised Gurbaz for his excellent innings, saying that he showed maturity under pressure.
“He was fantastic. He played with a lot of guts and won the match for us.” Gurbaz who was adjudged man of the match for his match-winning century said, the captain wants a hundred from him and he is happy to deliver it.
“I had some icing and recovered from the injury in the previous match. My captain wants hundreds from me and not just fifty. I tried to play a longer knock whenever I get set,” Gurbaz said.
“Today was my day and I hit a hundred. Rahmat and Riaz played well and once they performed well; I was under pressure since I didn’t play well in the first few games. Rahmat supported me well.”
