That will be all from us for today. We hope you enjoyed our coverage and there is lots of cricket in store over the next few hours – all of which an be followed on ESPNcricinfo. Until next time, this is goodbye from Himanshu, Vairavan and myself. Take care, everyone!
Afghanistan vs Bangladesh squads
Bangladesh Squad: Tanzid Hasan, Soumya Sarkar, Najmul Hossain Shanto(c), Jaker Ali(w), Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Towhid Hridoy, Mahmudullah, Rishad Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, Shoriful Islam, Mustafizur Rahman, Nasum Ahmed, Zakir Hasan, Nahid Rana.
Afghanistan Squad: Rahmanullah Gurbaz, Sediqullah Atal, Rahmat Shah, Hashmatullah Shahidi(c), Mohammad Nabi, Gulbadin Naib, Rashid Khan, Nangeyalia Kharote, Allah Ghazanfar, Fazalhaq Farooqi, Ikram Alikhil(w), Azmatullah Omarzai, Fareed Ahmad Malik, Darwish Rasooli, Riaz Hassan, Noor Ahmad, Abdul Malik, Bilal Sami, Naveed Zadran
Najmul Hossain Shanto, the Bangladesh captain is also the Player of the Match: (On how he is feeling) Little better but there is still something, so I have to wait till the next match. (On his knock) To be very honest, I am not happy. I need to bat a bit longer. The wicket was difficult, especially against spinners. But the way I started, I was happy (with my innings).
The way Miraz and Nasum were bowling, credit goes to them. The way we started, Taskin again took out Gurbaz, who is an important batter (for Afghanistan). What I want from the fielding side is a lot of energy and they delivered today. I was happy with that. The way they (Jaker and Nasum) finished, it looked like we got the momentum. That is what I want with Jaker and from the lower and middle order. Hopefully they (Jaker and Nasum) can continue batting (like this).
Hashmatullah Shahidi, Afghanistan captain: It was tough. I think they scored 40 runs in the last five overs and that was the reason (for the defeat). We did well but the wicket was used, and it was tough to bat in the second innings. The first ten overs, the way we bowled, it was not up to the mark. Also, the last five overs cost us because we gave away more runs. We will think about it. In the batting, we lost back-to-back wickets. We needed some more partnerships. We will sit and talk about it (before the last match).
9:38pm A fairly comfortable victory for Bangladesh in the end, and in many ways, this chase followed Wednesday’s pattern. Afghanistan seemed well-placed when Shahidi and Rahmat were together, even if the required run-rate was climbing. Shahidi then fell and Rahmat was run-out in a disastrous mix-up. There were fighting cameos from Naib, Nabi and Rashid but Afghanistan, having fallen behind, needed something a little bit more.
Coming back to Bangladesh, they will be happy with how they bowled. Their spinners, who returned wicket-less the other day, came to the party. Mehidy, standing in as skipper after Shanto walked off injured, brought himself on to slice through Nabi’s defences, removing Kharote shortly after too. Nasum was brilliant throughout and justified his inclusion, finishing as Bangladesh’s most successful bowler. Mustafizur, Taskin and Shoriful were also among the wickets – each of them doing what was asked of them.