Bangladesh’s winning momentum against visitors Afghanistan halted to opener Rahmanullah Gurbaz’s third one-day international century as the hosts conceded a seven-wicket defeat in the third and final ODI of the series at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in the port city Monday.
With the defeat, Bangladesh, who confirmed the series after winning the first two matches, lost the chance to grab the final 10 points that was on offer to extend their lead in the ICC Cricket World Cup Super League Table.
Bangladesh are still at the summit with 100 points and 10 wins from 15 games followed by England [95], India [79] and Ireland [68].
Afghanistan on the other hand moved to sixth position in the table with 70 points and seven wins from nine games, leapfrogging Australia.
Bangladesh in the third ODI suffered defeat due to a below-par batting performance.
They struggled to sustain against the Afghanistan attack and put runs on the board, like it was in the first ODI, except there was no Afif Hossain and Mehedi Hasan Miraz partnership to settle a drowning innings.
Bangladesh decided to bat first after winning the toss and once again lost their captain and opener Tamim Iqbal early in the innings.
The left-handed batter for the third time in six days lost his wicket to young left-arm pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi and went back to the dressing scoring 11 this time.
The other opener Liton Das however, remained till the 36th over of the innings.
The in-form right-handed batter after scoring a half-century was well on course to a second consecutive century despite losing partners on the other end.
However, Liton departed scoring 86 off 113 laced with seven boundaries; Bangladesh reeling on 153 for five.
Earlier Shakib al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim and Yasir Ali were dismissed for 30, seven and one respectively.
Among the remaining wickets, only Mahmudullah could score in double figure.
The Bangladesh T20 captain remained unbeaten on 29 as the innings ended inside the 47th over with only 192 runs on the board.
Afif and Miraz could out only add five and six runs to the board respectively.
Bangladesh batters struggled against almost all the Afghan bowlers.
However, it was the spinners who were in the lead.
Leg-spinner Rashid Khan gave away only 37 runs in his 10 overs and picked up three wickets, followed by Mohammad Nabi with two scalps for 29 runs in 10 overs.
Mujeeb Ur Rahman remained wicketless but was economical giving away 37 runs in eight overs.
Defending the disappointing total was a challenge for Bangladesh bowlers and the job was further made difficult by right-handed opener Gurbaz.
The wicketkeeper-batter remained unbeaten on 106 to take Afghanistan to the shore and deny Bangladesh a whitewash.
Gurbaz in his 110-ball innings struck seven boundaries and four over boundaries and was instrumental behind the visitors reaching the target with 59 balls and seven wickets to spare.
Rahmat Shah added a 67-ball 47 to the tally.
Off the three Afghanistan wickets, off-spinner Miraz bagged two while Shakib picked up one leaking 47 runs in 10 overs.
The two teams will travel to Dhaka Tuesday and switch mood to T20 cricket with the two-match series set to start in Dhaka at the end of this week.
The first game is scheduled to be played Thursday followed by the second Saturday.
Both the games will be played at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.
