After claiming the last-over nervy win in the first game the host Bangladesh are on the verge of their third successive Twenty20 international series win when they take on their Afghanistan counterparts in the second final T20I at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Sunday.
The game will kick off at 6 pm.
Before coming into the ongoing series, Bangladesh had bagged a 3-0 and 2-1 series win over the defending champions England and Ireland, respectively, in their backyard early this year.
The home side also saw similar success registering a consecutive third series win over the hosts Zimbabwe [2-1], followed by the touring Australia and New Zealand by 4-1 and 3-2 at their den in 2021.
With Towhid Hridoy standing on a flurry 47 off 32 balls, and Bangladesh requiring only six runs from the last over to register a facile victory in the series opener, suffered a terrible batting collapse thanks to Afghanistan medium pacer Karim Janat’s hat trick.
The 24-year-old Afghan seasoned all-rounder had Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Taskin Ahmed and Nasum Ahmed on his second, third and fourth delivery that apparently knocked out the hosts from the game.
However, they eventually overcame the jeopardy after their tail ender Shoriful Islam struck Janat a boundary on his fifth delivery to secure a nervy 2-wicket win to up in the series by 1-0.
After the game, Towhid revealed that although he lost Mehidy, Taskin and Nasum in a row from the other end, he had confidence in them.
‘I had trust on everybody as Taskin Bhai, Nasum Bhai, even Shoriful as well bat very well. We secured a win over England after Taskin Bhai smashed a back-to-back boundary.’
The 22-year-old right-handed further disclosed that since he knew about Shoriful’s hitting ability during his stint in the Under-19, he had absolute trust upon the latter.
‘I had an early trust on Shoriful since I had been well informed regarding his ability. I noticed him hitting big maximums during our outings in the U-19, consequently I had an absolute faith upon him.’
‘I told him the only thing is that you will run even if you fail to connect the ball with the bat. And at the final I told him, 'it is you who will win the match.’
Towhid also affirmed that this kind of win would definitely boost their morale in future.
‘Whoever the counterpart is, this sort of win will surely provide confidence to each player as we barely used to play this type of game.’
