ODI World Cup 2023: Bangladesh vs Afghanistan, 3rd ODI - Who Said What?

Bangladesh start their 2023 ODI World Cup campaign with a spectacular victory over Afghanistan at the Himachal Pradesh Cricket Association Stadium in Dharamsala. Winning the toss, Shakib Al Hasan decided to bowl first as the skipper, and Mehidy Hasan Miraz stepped up to restrict Afghanistan to 156 runs. Both the spinners pick three wickets each, and that’s a positive sign for them going forward.

Afghanistan bowlers, on the other hand, looked very average. Bangla Tigers dominated with the bat as Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Najmul Hussain Shanto hit a half-century each. Shakib, towards the fag end, tried to accelerate and hit 14 runs before walking back to the pavilion. Overall, the team will be extremely happy with their performance.

Talking points of the match:

Spin twins Shakib and Mehidy decimates Afghani batters

Afghanistan batters had no idea how to deal with Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz. Both the cricketers picked up three wickets each and absolutely decimated the Afghan batting unit. This should give them a lot of confidence ahead of their next match against England.

Mehidy repeats the same with the bat alongside Shanto

Just like with the ball, Mehidy Hasan does it with the bat as well. The all-rounder hit a half-century and built a crucial 97-run partnership to help Bangladesh get the job done. Shanto, too, hit a half-century as Bangladesh picked up a comfortable six-wicket victory.

Ground not appropriate to host international cricket

The ground at HPCA Stadium definitely didn’t look like an international venue. The players were afraid to dive and save the bowl, and at times, when they did, they hurt themselves, or sand was all over their bodies. Going forward, BCCI and ICC need to address this problem.

Losing skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said: 

We had a good start, but we had bad shot selections after that. I think we fought well, but the score wasn't good enough. Looking forward to the next game. Need to learn from our mistakes, need to make sure it doesn't happen again.

Winning skipper Shakib Al Hasan said:

Very happy with the way we played. We believed if we got a wicket, we could come back in. Wasn't easy for few players, but happy with the way we batted and bowled. We have been practising here. We need to adapt to these things if we want to win. We got three, four fast bowlers, they can change any game. He's been playing very well. Shanto is another one, they always want to do perform well for the team.

POTM Mehidy Hasan Miraz said:

It’s a great moment for me, I’ve done a lot of hard work in the past. Credit to the team management because they believed in me. I was a bit cautious, the captain told me to bowl in the right areas. He told me to be consistent and to focus on my own performance so credit to the captain. I took it ball by ball, didn’t look at the runs. Wicket was turning a bit, I just tried to play straight. I’ve always batted at no.8 so a great moment for me to bat at the top of the order. They tried me at the top of the order in the last few matches and it’s a great moment for me.