Liton Das ton inspires Bangladesh to victory against Afghanistan

Liton Das scored a century and shared a record 202-run stand with Mushfiqur Rahim to lead Bangladesh to an 88-run victory against Afghanistan in Chittagong on Friday. With this win over Afghanistan, Bangladesh has grabbed a 2-0 lead in the three-match series.

Afghanistan lost their first three wickets quickly and was on the verge of being humiliated at 34-3, but Najibullah Zadran (54) and Rahmat Shah (52) boosted them with an 89-run fourth-wicket partnership.

Bangladesh was in danger from the start, opting to bat only for left-arm bowler Fazalhaq Farooqi to catch Tamim Iqbal leg-before for 12 and Rashid Khan to dismiss Shakib (20) off his second delivery.

Liton Das scored his sixth ODI century. Liton Das scored 136 runs from 126 balls, which included 16 fours and two sixes.

Fareed Ahmad bowled Liton and Mushfiqur off successive deliveries, but not before they had exceeded Bangladesh’s previous greatest third-wicket ODI partnership of 176 runs, established against Pakistan in 2015.

“The stand between Liton and Mushy was great,” Bangladesh skipper Tamim remarked. Although we did not bat well, our bowlers finished the job for us.

Fareed ended up with 2-56 for Afghanistan in his first series match.

In the early overs, we let too many runs in, and then the partnership between Mushy and Liton snatched the game away from us,” Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said.

It was Bangladesh’s second partnership record of the series, following a seventh-wicket stand between Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan in the first match on Wednesday, which led to a four-wicket triumph.

On Monday, the final match of the series will played on the same venue.