Dramatic sweep for Afghanistan
Just when it seemed that the drama could not have intensified further, with Bangladesh needing four from the last ball to win and the irrepressible Rashid Khan bowling to new man Ariful Haque, that is exactly what happened. Ariful connected with a powerful hit and it looked for all money that he had pulled off a heist, but Shafiqullah Shafiq first stopped the projectile for it to land mere inches inside the ropes but with momentum taking it beyond on the bounce, and then, in a display of incredible alertness, slapping the ball inside play milliseconds before his feet touched the ground.
Mahmudullah Riyad and Ariful were in the process of completing the third run that would have forced a Super Over, but the throw came in to run the former out and hand Afghanistan a one-run win in the third and final T20I, and a 3-0 series sweep at the Rajiv Gandhi International Cricket Stadium in Dehradun yesterday. It was the signal for wicketkeeper Mohammad Shahzad, who had earlier in the day been the recipient of the 'Nagin' celebration from Nazmul Islam when he was incorrectly given out leg-before, to break out in the trademark celebration.
It was yet another instance of Bangladesh failing at the last hurdle, but it was Mushfiqur Rahim who took them that close in the first place by smashing five consecutive, sublime boundaries off Karim Janat to take 21 runs in the 19th over and bring the equation down from 30 from 12 balls to nine off the last over.
After his departure off the first ball of the last over -- caught at deep midwicket off a sweep for a 37-ball 46 -- there was still hope for the Tigers with another set batsman, Mahmudullah, at the crease.
But the splendid Rashid gave Mahmudullah little leeway as he was able to deal only in singles to bring down the equation to four runs from the last ball, when the drama unfolded.
Earlier, coming in to chase the 146-run target, Bangladesh lost wickets regularly even before the introduction of player-of-the-series Rashid. Tamim was the first to depart, coming down the track to off-spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman and handed a simple catch to cover after scoring just five.
Things got worse after Soumya Sarkar (15), coming in at number three, was run out at the non-striker's end unnecessarily when Liton Das (12) hit the ball straight to short third man. In the same over, Liton was the victim in almost an identical scenario, but this time with new man Mushfiqur at the striker's end, to leave with the score on 35 for three.
Skipper Shakib Al Hasan also departed cheaply for 10 when Samiullah Shenwari took a brilliant one-handed catch diving to his right at cover off the bowling of Janat in the ninth over.
It looked like Bangladesh were about to surrender yet again until Mahmudullah and Mushfiqur displayed some much needed calm, thus far absent in the Bangladeshi batsman, to add 84 runs for the fifth wicket in 10.4 overs.
The match had started with Afghanistan winning their first toss of the series and getting off to a flying start with the bat, with Mohammad Shahzad taking 18 runs off the first over from Mehedi Hasan Miraz, but the Bangladesh bowlers tightened things up afterwards.
Pacer Abu Jayed, making a comeback to the side, and Nazmul Islam bagged two wickets each while Shakib, in his 302nd match, picked up the wicket of Najibullah Zadran to achieve the feat of becoming only the third cricketer to take 500 wickets and score 10,000 runs in all formats of international cricket. Shahid Afridi and Jacques Kallis are the others, but they needed more than 500 matches to do so.
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