Rashid and Gurbaz take the lead as Afghanistan prevent ODI series sweep

Rahmanullah Gurbaz hammered his third ODI century, an unbeaten 106 in 110 balls, to help Afghanistan race to a seven-wicket win against Bangladesh in the third and final ODI in Chattogram. They were dominant all the way through, first restricting the home side to 192 in 46.5 overs and then getting to the target in 40.1. Though they had already lost the series before the start of the game, Afghanistan earned ten valuable Super League points with the result.

Rashid Khan led the sharp bowling effort with 3 for 37, the second wicket making him the second fastest to 150 ODI wickets (in terms of innings bowled) behind Saqlain Mushtaq. Mohammad Nabi chipped in with two wickets during a strong phase in which Bangladesh slipped from 121 for 2 to 160 for 6 in just over ten overs, while there were three run-outs too, which compounded matters for Bangladesh.

The chase of 193 was a relatively straightforward one. Afghanistan rode on two good partnerships to get them through.

Gurbaz first added 79 for the first wicket with Riaz Hassan, who looked good during his 35. He fell in the 16th over when Mushfiqur Rahim stumped him off Shakib Al Hasan after missing the stumps with the first attempt to whip off the bails.

The second one was for the second wicket, when Gurbaz and Rahmat Shah added 100 runs together, till Mehidy Hasan Miraz got rid of Rahmat, stumped as the batter missed an arm ball.

Gurbaz reached his century in the 39th over when he pushed Mustafizur Rahman through the covers for a couple. With this, his third ODI century, he joined a club of five players who have converted their first three 50-plus scores in ODIs into centuries. Dennis Amiss and Kamran Akmal are joint with Gurbaz on three, while Quinton de Kock converted his first five, and Imam-ul-Haq his first four.

In Gurbaz's case, there was a chance he wouldn't play this game, after picking up a knee injury in the previous outing. But he played, kept wickets too, and struck four sixes - two straight and two powerful pulls over square-leg - and seven fours, three of them powered down the ground, during his innings. One of the shots down the ground was a one-handed straight drive off Taskin Ahmed.

He also benefited from two reprieves, one when on 13 and the second on 61. The first was in the seventh over when Mushfiqur and first slip Yasir Ali let an edge go through off Shoriful Islam. Mahmudullah then dropped an easy chance in the 25th over at fine-leg, his seventh spill since January last year. Shoriful was the bowler again.

Gurbaz completed the chase in the 41st over - after Mehidy had sent back Hashmatullah Shahidi - with a single to square-leg.

In the first half, Litton Das was the only batter to stand up. He made 86 off 113 balls, a polished knock that included seven fours. As with most Litton innings, he struck the ball well through the covers and midwicket, and worked it around the dial although wickets fell around him.

Tamim Iqbal's problems against Fazalhaq Farooqi continued, as he was dismissed by the left-arm quick for the third time in a row. This is the first time in Tamim's ODI career that he has been felled by the single bowler three times in a series.

Despite losing Tamim early, Bangladesh battled with Shakib and Litton adding 61 runs for the second wicket. But when Shakib fell for 30, playing an Azmatullah Omarzai delivery on to his stumps in the 22nd over, it started a slow collapse.

Rashid removed Mushfiqur and Yasir in consecutive overs, both caught behind for single-digit scores. Yasir became the fourth Bangladeshi batter to score just one run in his maiden ODI series (in two innings in his case), after Harunur Rashid (1988), Moniruzzaman (2003) and Fazle Mahmud (2018).

Litton eventually fell when he holed out to a tumbling Gulbadin Naib at long-on, off Nabi, who also removed Afif Hossain, who played a soft shot towards mid-on, before Mehidy was run-out for six.

Rashid added Taskin as his third wicket, before Shoriful and Mustafizur were both run-out to round off an impressive Afghanistan bowling and fielding performance.

Meanwhile, it was only for the fourth time in their ODI history that Bangladesh picked the same XI for a whole series of three or more matches.

Source: ESPNcricinfo