Bangladesh conceded their maiden ODI series defeat to Afghanistan when they lost the second one-day international of the three-match series by 142 runs at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram on Saturday.

Afghanistan openers Rahmanullah Gurbaz (145) and Ibrahim Zadran (100) set up the victory for the tourists as they completed their respective hundreds and also put up a massive partnership of 256 runs after being sent into bat first.
Bangladesh bowlers fought back well from that situation to restrict Afghanistan to 331-9 in their 50 overs but another woeful batting performance led the hosts to a massive defeat in the contest as they were bowled out for 189 runs in 43.2 overs.

Mushfiqur Rahim, who was playing his 250th ODI, scored the highest 69 runs for the Tigers and he was the last batsman to get dismissed in the innings.

Pacer Ebadot Hossain, who suffered a left knee injury while completing his final over in the match, didn’t bat for the Tigers. Bangladesh team management informed that he’s currently under observation for 48 hours and they will decide about his future in the coming days.

Shakib Al Hasan and Mehidy Hasan Miraz also scored 25 runs each.

Bangladesh earlier played two three-match ODI series against Afghanistan in 2016 and 2022 respectively on home soil and they won both the series by a 2-1 margin.

With this series victory, Afghanistan now have beaten Bangladesh across all formats. They beat Bangladesh by a 3-0 margin in Dehradun, India during a T20I series while in 2019, they beat Bangladesh by 224 runs in a one-off Test series in Chattogram.
Bangladesh needed to break their previous highest successful chase record in order to stay alive in the series but they lost their three top-order batters for just 25 runs within the ninth over of their innings.

Interim skipper Liton Das (13) lost his wicket to pacer Fazalhaq Farooqi while Najmul Hossain Shanto (one) and Mohammad Naim (nine) also couldn’t do much with the bat.

Shanto lost his wicket to Mujeeb Ur Rahman while Naim, who replaced Tamim Iqbal in the game and played his first ODI since May, 2021, became Farooqi’s second victim.

Towhid Hridoy (16) and Shakib then added 40 runs for the fourth wicket but both the batters as well as Afif Hossain (0) departed in a quick succession leaving the Tigers tottering at 72-6 in the 19th over.

Mushfiqur and Mehidy then shared an 87-run stand to provide some resistance to the innings but the dismissal of Mehidy ended Bangladesh’s final hope in the game.

Farooqi and Mujeeb took three wickets while Rashid Khan also claimed two wickets for Afghanistan.

Earlier, Gurbaz smashed Bangladeshi bowlers on all parts of the ground and struck 13 fours and eight sixes for his 125-ball 145 runs while Zadran also played his part during the colossal stand.

Shakib broke the record-breaking stand for Afghanistan after he trapped Gurbaz in front and Bangladesh bowlers soon started to find soil under feet.

Rahmat Shah (two) was dismissed to Ebadot while Hashmatullah Shahidi (two) lost his wicket to Mehidy.

Zadran, who completed his fourth ODI hundred, lost his wicket to pacer Mustafizur Rahman while Rashid Khan followed him in the next over. Nabi remained not out on 25 runs as Afghanistan posted their third highest total in this format.

Shakib finished with 2-50 while Mustafizur, Mehidy and Hasan Mahmud also took two wickets each.

The third and last match will be held at the same venue on Tuesday.