T20I Tri-series 2019, Match 6, Bangladesh vs Afghanistan – Shakib’s record knock, Bangladesh’s rare win and more stats

Bangladesh finished the league phase of the T20I Tri-Series at home as the table-toppers by defeating fellow finalists Afghanistan by 4 wickets. Hazratullah Zazai (47) and Rahmanullah Gurbaz (29) added 75 runs for the first wicket but the Afghans collapsed like they did during the game against Zimbabwe and settled with 138/7. As many as five batsmen in Bangladesh’s top seven were dismissed for single digits. But skipper Shakib Al Hasan scored an unbeaten 45-ball 70 to complete the chase with an over to spare.

All the statistical highlights from Bangladesh’s rare win over Afghanistan in the T20I format:

Rare win for Bangladesh:

2014 – For the first time since 2014, Bangladesh has defeated Afghanistan in a T20I match. Afghanistan won the each of the previous four T20Is against Bangladesh which includes a 3-0 whitewash last year in a 3-match series in Dehradun.

Shakib’s record knock:

70* – Shakib Al Hasan’s unbeaten 70 is now the highest T20I score by a Bangladesh captain. The previous highest was 61 by Mohammad Ashraful against West Indies in the 2007 T20 World Cup. Shakib also scored a 61 against West Indies during the 2018 Sylhet T20I.

70* – Shakib’s 70* is also the 2nd highest score in a successful T20I chase for Bangladesh. The highest is recorded by Mushfiqur Rahim when he scored 72* against Sri Lanka during the 2018 Nidahas Trophy match.

3 – Shakib Al Hasan now has scored fifty and taken at least one wicket in the same T20I on three instances. Only Shane Watson (9), Mohammad Hafeez (4) and Shahid Afridi (4) have recorded this double more times than Shakib.

Shakib @ 350:

350 – Number of wickets for Shakib Al Hasan in Twenty20 cricket; the 4th player with 350 wickets in this format. Dwayne Bravo (490), Lasith Malinga (385) and Sunil Narine (376) are the other three players to be part of this list.

Mahmudullah’s milestone match:

200 – Mahmudullah became the 2nd Bangladesh player to feature in 200 matches in the Twenty20 format. Shakib Al Hasan (302) was the first Bangladesh player to complete 200 T20 matches. Shakib completed 300 appearances in his second game of the series against Afghanistan.

Losing it after big opening stands:

1 – Number of times Afghanistan lost a T20I after a 50-run opening stand before this tournament. They lost to South Africa in the 2016 WT20 game while chasing a big total after a 52-run opening stand.

However, on Friday, the opening pair of Hazratullah Zazai and Rahmanullah Gurbaz added 83 runs against Zimbabwe and 75 runs against Bangladesh on Saturday; both resulting in defeats. In fact, these two are the top two partnerships of Afghanistan for any wicket in T20I defeats.

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