Real Tigers show up as Afghanistan succumb to their lowest ODI total against Bangladesh
Shorfiul recorded his career-best figure picking up four wickets for 21.
Shoriful Islam breathed fire on his return to the playing XI as Bangladesh bundled Afghanistan for a paltry 126 runs in the third ODI at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium (ZACS) on Tuesday. This is Afghanistan's lowest score against Bangladesh in ODIs. Their previous lowest was 138 in 2016.
Shorfiul recorded his career-best figure picking up four wickets for 21. He wreaked havoc on the Aghan top order and they never really recovered from that. His second over, the third of the Afghanistan's innings, started the downfall for the visitors where the southpaw sent Ibrahim Zadran and Rahmat Shah back to the pavilion in a similar style.
Taskin Ahmed chipped in with the wicket of Rahmanullah Gurbaz in the sixth over before Shoriful bagged another one to reduce Afghanistan to 15/4 inside the ninth over.
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Shoriful and Taskin bowled 52 dot balls in the first powerplay, Bangladesh's joint-highest in ODIs.
Afghanistan's run rate remained 2-2.50 for the most part of the innings. Najibullah Zadran was the fifth batter to be dismissed in the 16th over becoming Shakib Al Hasan's first dismissal. Afghanistan lost half of their batting side for 32 but the lower order along with the tailenders scored some valuable runs to get the team beyond 100.
Afghan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi was bowled by Taijul Islam who also played his first match in the series. Taijul later picked up Zia-ur-Rehman's wicket after Shoriful bagged his fourth.
The tail bothered Bangladesh but Miraz and Taskin picked up the final two wickets in consecutive overs to eventually bowl the visitors out for 125.
Apart from Shoriful's four-for, Taskin and Taijul bagged a brace each. Shakib and Miraz picked up a wicket each.
Azmatullah Omarzai was the lone warrior for the Afghans with his half-century. He scored 56 off 71 balls before being dismissed as the last batter. He hit one boundary and three maximums. Skipper Shahidi bagged 22 while Mujeeb Ur Rahman added valuable 11 runs.
