After wrapping up the series with a match to go, Bangladesh now are eying to inflict a whitewash on Afghanistan as they face off the visitors for the third and final ODI at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Monday.
The match starts at 11AM. Gazi TV and T Sports Channel will telecast the match live from the stadium.
The Tigers won the first match by four wickets after recovering from a precarious 45-6 and then whacked Afghanistan past by 88 runs in the second game to come one step closer to clean sweep of the series.
In the first match, Afghanistan compiled a moderate 215 before being bowled out but kept them in winning position, thanks to a sensational bowling of Fazalhaq Farooqi, who triggered Bangladesh's top order collapse with four-wicket haul. It was the heroic partnership of Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Afif Hossain who put on a record 174-run for the seventh wicket to guide Tigers win the game from the jaws of defeat.
Liton Das struck a sublime 136 in the second game and Mushfiqur played a brilliant knock of 86 as Bangladesh put up 306-4, their highest ODI total against Afghanistan. The bowlers then bowled well in tandem to script the facile victory.
With super league points at stake, Bangladesh indeed have no reason to be relaxed as every point in the bilateral series is important despite winning the series.
The hosts reached a magical 100 points and moved to the top of ICC ODI Super League after clinching the second ODI. But still there is nothing to be relaxed as they have some tough series coming up. They though had already made a giant leap towards confirming the 2023 ODI World Cup, a series of defeats in the next matches could jeopardize their aspiration.
From that point of view, Bangladesh knew every point is now important for them.
"As the series is the part of ICC ODI Super League, we all know every point is now important whatever the scoreline of the series is. Instead of talking about whitewash, we need 10 points that are on the cards now.
Definitely we would like to win the game for those 10 points," Mehidy Hasan Miraz, the hero of Bangladesh's victory in the first game said on Sunday.
"There is no chance to stay relaxed. The team management knows whether they will bring any changes to the squad but whatever the squad is, the goal is simply to win the game. We are not thinking of anything other than victory."
Also a victory in the third game will help them to leapfrog Pakistan and move to sixth position in the ICC ODI rankings. A win will help them to whitewash Afghanistan for the first time also. Earlier in their first bilateral series in 2016, Bangladesh won the series by 2-1. So there is a lot to achieve from the game.
Of the 10 matches between the two teams so far in ODI cricket, Bangladesh now have the upper-hand with seven wins and Afghans won three. The win-loss ratio proves how good Bangladesh are in ODI cricket, as Bangladesh captain Tamim Iqbal said earlier. Afghanistan however have the edge in T20 cricket as they won four and lost two in six matches against Bangladesh.
Squad:
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal (Captain), Liton Das, Najmul Hossain Shanto, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Mahmudullah Riyad, Afif Hossain, Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Mustafizur Rahman, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Ebadot Hossain, Nasum Ahmed, Yasir Ali Chowdhury, Mahmudul Hasan Joy.
Afghanistan: Hasmatullah Shahidi (captain), Rahmat Shah (vice-captain), Azmatullah Omarzai, Fareed Ahmad, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Gulbadin Naib, Ibrahim Zadran, Ikram Alikhil, Mohammad Nabi, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Najibullah Zadran, Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Rashid Khan, Riaz Hassan, Shahidullah, Yamin Ahmadzai
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