Sabbir Hossain :
The Tigers roared again to clinch the Afghan ODI series 2-1 after a thumping 141-run victory in the third and final ODI at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on October 1. By virtue of Saturday’s win, Bangladesh registered their 100th ODI victory.
Bangladesh earned a seven-run win over Afghanistan in the first ODI at the same venue on September 25. But Bangladesh lost to Afghanistan by two wickets in the second ODI at the same venue on September 28.
It may be mentioned that Bangladesh played international cricket series after almost six months. It was one of the reasons for Bangladesh’s loss by Afghanistan in the second ODI. Besides, Bangladesh showed a shaky performance in the first and second ODI against Afghanistan.
Later, Bangladesh got their rhythm and then tamed the promising Afghan Lions by a massive victory in the third ODI.
Dashing opener Tamim Iqbal showed a consistent batting performance to achieve the Man of the Series award. He scored altogether (80+20+118) 218 runs with a notable 72.66 average. Iqbal is now the ODI highest run getter of the batsmen of Bangladesh. He scored 4931 runs playing 156 matches. Besides, He scored the highest ODI century of all batsmen of Bangladesh with seven hundreds.
Mahmudullah Riyad is the other batsman of Bangladesh who kept consistency. He scored altogether (62+25+32 not out) 119 with a good average of 59.50.
Prolific all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan failed to shine with the willow but he shone with the cherry. Shakib Al Hasan bagged altogether (2+4+0) 6 wickets in the series. Shakib Al Hasan is now the highest ODI wicket taker of bowlers of Bangladesh. He captured 212 wickets playing 160 ODI matches.
Taskin Ahmed had a heroic return to the international cricket. He captured altogether (4+1+2) 7 wickets in the series.
Earlier, Taskin Ahmed was banned by ICC for his illegal bowling action and then he passed in a bowling action test held in Brisbane recently.
If we analyse the recently concluded ODI series, we can find that the bowlers of Bangladesh performed better than that the performance of the batsmen.
