Bangladesh seal maiden bilateral T20I series against Afghanistan

Bangladesh clinched the two-match T20I series against Afghanistan with a six-wicket win (by DLS method) in the second T20I at The Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Sunday. 

Before this series, Bangladesh and Afghanistan had played two bilateral series in the format, with Rashid Khan and Co. winning one and the other one ending in a draw.

The Tigers chased down the 117-run target as skipper Shakib Al Hasan guided his side to victory with an 11–ball 18-run knock, while Shamim Hossain hit the winning runs with five balls remaining. 

The hosts got off to a flying as openers Liton Das and Afif Hossain put up a 67-run stand but Afghanistan spinner Mujeeb Ur Rahman struck twice in the 10th over to bring back the visitors into the contest. 

In the following over, Najmul Hossain Shanto, who scored a six-ball four, played all over a full and straight delivery off pacer Azmatullah Omarzai.

This reduced the Tigers to 76 for the loss of three after 11 overs.

Mujeeb came on and sent back Liton, who managed to score 35 runs off 36 balls, with the first delivery of the 10th over, courtesy of a stunning catch at covers from Afghanistan skipper Rashid Khan, and Afif's 20-ball 24 came to an end as was caught at deep-midwicket while trying to slog-sweep on the third delivery of the over.

After scoring 50 runs in the first five overs, Bangladesh could only manage 20 runs in the next five which caused the potentially straight-forward chase to become interesting at the latter stage.