Tigers final chance to salvage lost pride today

FT ONLINE

Bangladesh would be looking to salvage some of their lost pride tomorrow as they face high flying Afghanistan in their third and final match of the three-match T20 series scheduled to be held today (Thursday) at Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun, India.

The match kicks off at 8.30 pm.

Afghanistan on Tuesday sealed their maiden Twenty20 International series win against Bangladesh when they emerged winner by six wickets in the second T20 game.

Bangladesh looked well in control at 94 for 3 but in-form leg spinner Rashid Khan weaved his web to snare four Tiger scalps for an incredible figure of 4 for 12 runs in four over.

Afghan spinners Rashid, Nabi and Mujeeb claimed combined figures of 6 for 46 in 12 over to run through Bangladesh’s batting line-up.

Rashid, the top ranked T20I bowler, picked up 3 for 13 in the first game as Tigers crashed to a 45-run defeat.

Bangladesh skipper Shakib Al Hasan after the second match said in a post match conference: “I think we were 15 to 20 runs short as we kept losing wickets after we had a good start.

They (Afghanistan) kept the pressure on us in the middle overs and we lost wickets. [And we] couldn’t get to a good score and that’s where the match was lost.

He [Rashid] bowled really well in both the games. They’ve got some world class spinners and they’re doing their job. We need to come up with better plans against them,” he observed.

Tomorrow Bangladesh will try to avoid further embarrassment notching much needed win while Afghanistan will target a clean sweep led by their mercurial Rashid Khan backed by Nabi and Mujeeb.

Tiger batsmen and bowlers should shrugged off from their mind the two previous defeats and come back strongly tomorrow to put up a much improved performance to stopped total rout.

Teams:

Bangladesh (From): Tamim Iqbal, Liton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim(wicket keeper), Shakib Al Hasan(captain), Mahmudullah, Sabbir Rahman, Mosaddek Hossain, Mehidy Hasan, Abu Hider Rony, Rubel Hossain, Nazmul Islam, Soumya Sarkar, Ariful Haque, Abu Jayed, Abul Hasan.

Afghanistan (From): Mohammad Shahzad(wicket keeper), Najeeb Tarakai, Mohammad Nabi, Najibullah Zadran, Shafiqullah Shafiq, Sharafuddin Ashraf, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan(captain), Aftab Alam, Mujeeb Ur Rahman, Usman Ghani, Samiullah Shenwari, Darwish Rasooli, Karim Janat, Shapoor Zadran, Hazratullah Zazai