CHATTOGRAM, 11 Jul: Left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam’s career-best 4-21 helped Bangladesh avoid being swept when it beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in a one-day international on Tuesday.
\nAfghanistan won the first two ODIs, including a record total of 331-9 on Saturday. But three days later, the visitors were bowled out for 126 in 45.2 overs.
\nBangladesh raced to the target in 23.3 overs, reaching 129-3 with an unbeaten 53 from captain Liton Das.
\nA change of bowlers by Bangladesh made the difference. Shoriful came in, along with fast bowler Taskin Ahmed and left-arm spinner Taijul Islam. The latter pair picked up two wickets apiece.
\nTaskin and Shoriful maintained a better line and length and Shoriful swung the ball brilliantly to strike twice in his first over. He got the better of Ibrahim Zadran, a century-maker on Saturday, and Rahmat Shah. Both edged behind in single figures.
\nTaskin undid Rahamanullah Gurbaz, who hammered 145 in the last ODI, with a short delivery that the opener could only top edge on 6.
\nWhen Shoriful changed his angle to dismiss Mohammad Nabi, Afghanistan was 15-4.
\nNo. 7 batter Azmatullah Omarzai scored 56 to help Afghanistan pass 100. His partnership with Mujeeb-ur-Rahman for the ninth wicket of 36 was their highest of the innings.
\nOmarzai was the last batter out when he top-edged a slower delivery by Taskin to long on.
\nBangladesh lost Mohammad Naim, the replacement for Tamim Iqbal, for a duck early in the chase. And pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi also dismissed Najmul Hossain for 11 to reduce Bangladesh to 28-2.
\nBut a 61-run partnership between Liton and Shakib Al Hasan settled Bangladesh. Shakib left for a run-a-ball 39.
\nLiton pulled off-spinner Mujeeb for a boundary over midwicket to raise his 10th fifty off 57 balls. Towhid Hridoy cut debutant Ziaur-ur-Rahman past point for a boundary to bring up the victory. He was 22 not out.
\nFarooqi took 2-26 for eight wickets from three ODIs, and was named man of the series.
\nThe sides play two Twenty20s at Sylhet on Friday and Sunday. (AP)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
CHATTOGRAM, 11 Jul: Left-arm pacer Shoriful Islam’s career-best 4-21 helped Bangladesh avoid being swept when it beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in a one-day international on Tuesday. Afghanistan won the first two ODIs, including a record total of 331-9 on Saturday. But three days later, the visitors were bowled out for 126 in 45.2 overs. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[10],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-220188","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","6":"category-sports"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220188","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=220188"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/220188\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=220188"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=220188"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/arunachaltimes.in\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=220188"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}