Bangladesh has the last laugh !!
Bangladesh Cricket : The Tigers
Bangladesh ended the series by winning the last match. Bangladesh's performance in the recently held ODI series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan was disappointing. Such a performance isn't at all satisfactory for a team that is moving forward with the dream of winning the world championship. That too against a team like Afghanistan. While the team failed to beat Afghanistan, fans are worried about how Bangladesh will perform against the best teams in the world. Can Bangladesh win the world with this team?
The main objective of the ODI series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan was to prepare for the World Cup. How were the preparations of the two teams? The series between Bangladesh and Afghanistan was held at Chittagong. The first match between the two teams took place on the 5th of July. Afghanistan won the first match with the DLS method. Bangladesh batted first in the rain-interrupted match. Where the team managed to score only 169 runs in the allotted 43 overs. Afghanistan got off to a good start after good bowling. At one point due to rain, the game wasn't played on the field and Afghanistan won by leading by 17 runs.
After the unexpected loss in the first match, fans expected Bangladesh to make a comeback in the second match. But Bangladesh failed to make a comeback in the 2nd match. Bangladesh lost badly in the second match after the first match. Bangladesh lost against Afghanistan by 140+ runs.
Afghanistan started the 2nd match marvelously. In that match both the openers picked up individual centuries which gave Afghanistan the lead in the match. In response to Afghanistan's 330+ runs, Bangladesh's batting performance was very poor. Bangladesh team was all out for only 189 runs. Only Mushfiquer Rahim, known as Mr. Dependable, played better than any other player. As a result, the Afghans won the ODI series against Bangladesh for the first time with a huge victory
After losing the first two matches, the Bangladesh team turned around in the last ODI. Bangladesh beat Afghanistan by seven wickets in the last ODI. The bowlers made their way to victory for Bangladesh in this match. Left-arm pacer Shariful, who got a place in the eleven of the last match, took four wickets alone that day. Afghanistan were all out for just 126 runs in this match.
In response to Afghanistan's 127 runs, Bangladesh lost wickets at the start of batting, but Captain Liton Kumar Das's fifty won the team. Along with Liton, Shakib's performance in this match was also excellent. In the end, Afghanistan won the series by 2-1. In this series, Bangladesh only got the win in the last match. Before the World Cup, Bangladesh played very badly which can affect the world cup performances!