Bangladesh completed a 3-0 clean sweep over Afghanistan with a convincing six-wicket win in the third and final T20I of the series at the Sharjah Cricket Ground on Sunday.聽
Mohammad Saifuddin was the most successful bowler for the Tigers with 3-15, as Afghanistan managed 143-9 in 20 overs despite being 98-8 at one stage. 聽
Saif Hassan then remained unbeaten on 64 off 38, with seven sixes鈥攋ointly the second most by a Bangladeshi batter in an innings鈥� and two four as the visitors reached 144-4 with two overs in hand.聽
This is the first time that Bangladesh managed a clean sweep over Afghanistan.
Openers Parvez Hossain and Tanzid Hasan made a relatively slow start when Bangladesh came down to chase for the third time in the series.聽
Parvez fell in the fifth over when the score was 24 after making 14 off 16.聽
Saif then added 55 off 39 with Tanzid, where the latter contributed 25 off 24. Tanzid was dismissed for 33 off 33 in the 11th over despite having two reprieves, but Bangladesh were on track thanks to Saif, who kept hitting boundaries regularly.聽
Jaker Ali鈥攚ho survived a review and then successfully used one鈥攆inally was trapped lbw off Mujeeb Ur Rahman after scoring 10 off 11.聽
When Shamim Hossain fell in the first delivery he faced, a familiar collapse was peeping through.聽
However, Saif, with the help of Nurul, managed the remaining 35 runs without much of a fuss.聽
Saif, however, survived when he was 41. He brought up his fifty in 32 balls.聽
Earlier, Shoriful Islam drew the first blood when he had Ibrahim Zadran at the beginning of the third over.聽
Afghanistan lost two more wickets in the powerplay as Nasum Ahmed and Saifuddin joined the party.聽
After a 34-run partnership between Darwish Rasooli and Sediqullah Atal was broken by Saifuddin via the wicket of the latter, a collapse followed.聽
Afghanistan lost five wickets for 25 runs at that time as an all-out Bangladeshi attack was all over them.聽
However, Mujeeb, who remained unbeaten on 23 off 18, added 45 runs for the last two wickets with the help of Rasooli (32 off 29) and Bashir, respectively.聽
Bangladesh will now play a three-match ODI series against the same opposition starting on October 8.
