All rounder Shakib Al Hasan’s unbeaten 70 powered Bangladesh’s four-wicket win against Afghanistan in the last group match of the T20I Tri-nation Series in Chattogram on Saturday (Sept 21).
Mushfiqur Rahim scored 26 before Shakib's master-class and Mosaddek Hossain's late blitz sealed Bangladesh's victory against Afghanistan for the first time in five years.
Bangladesh suffered an early loss as Liton Das and Najmul Hossain Shanto left soon reducing the Tigers to 12/2 in four overs in chase of 138 runs at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium.
Mushfiqur and Shakib rescued the Tigers by a 58-run partnership in the third wicket. The Afghans, however, continued to trouble the host.
The Tigers skipper built another 35-run stand with Mosaddek (19 off 12 balls) in the seventh wicket as Tigers reached home with an over to spare.
Shakib played 45 balls to score his ninth T20 fifty hitting eight fours and a six.
For Afghanistan, Rashid Khan and Naveen-ul-Haq took two wickets apiece while Karim Janat and Mujeeb Ur Rahman shared two wickets.
Rashid, however, suffered a tweaked hamstring but managed to come back.
Earlier, Bangladesh sent Afghanistan to bat after winning the toss.
Hazratullah Zazai top-scored 47 off 35 balls while Rahmanullah Gurbaz added 29 runs.
Gurbaz and Zazai started solid until Afif Hossain brought the breakthrough for Bangladesh as the right-arm spinner took two wickets including Zazai in a gap of one delivery in 10th over.
Shafiqullah (20), Najibullah Zadran (14) and Rashid Khan (10) were other batsmen to reach a double-digit
Afif was the pick of Bangladesh's blowers claiming 2-9 while Mohammad Saifuddin, Shafiul Islam, and Mustafizur Rahman shared three wickets.
Bangladesh skipper Shakib was adjudged as the Player of the Match.
Admitting Bangladesh's performance in T20 was not up to the mark in the last few months, Shakib said they needed to improve, and they have been working on it.
He praised the bowlers for doing 'fantastic job' throughout the tournament.
The all-rounder believes Saturday's win would give Tigers a motivation, and a lot of confidence to play the final against Afghanistan in Dhaka.
"The conditions will be different [in Dhaka] and we'll have to be at our best to beat Afghanistan," Shakib said.
Injured Afghan captain Rashid hoped that he would recover soon.
“I should hopefully be OK for the final.
"We lost too many wickets in the middle, which is an important error," he said adding they need to forget the defeat and stick to the basics in the final game.
Bangladesh and Afghanistan will play the final match in Dhaka's Mirpur on Monday (Sept 23).