Bangladesh made wickets for pacers: Gurbaz

Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz claimed that Bangladesh made a wicket, helpful for pacers, knowing that the visitors had a spin attack that is now No.1 in the world, reports BSS.

Afghanistan celebrated spin trio -- Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi, in combined so far took just three wickets in the first two matches as the touring party lost both of the matches to concede the series already.

The visitors tasted a four-wicket defeat in the first game and today they conceded an 88-run defeat in the second match.

“They knew that we have the No. 1 spin attack so they made wickets for pacers,” Gurbaz said, adding that they also didn’t expect Bangladesh to give them a spin wicket.

He also blamed their batting for the downfall in the series in which they came after winning six straight ODIs although those wins were against Netherlands and Ireland.

“This is Bangladesh’s home series, so we expected them not to make a spinners’ wicket for us. The main thing is, we didn’t do well as a batting unit. Hopefully we will do well in the next game. It has nothing to do against pace or spin; we just needed to bat a bit longer.”

Despite losing the series, Afghanistan can’t take the third game as just dead rubber since the series is the part of ICC ODI Super League and there is still 10 points up for grab.

“Every single match is really important for us. We shouldn’t lose our hope just because we lost the series. Actually we are looking for 10 points so we will try our best in the next game. We still have a lot of matches left to qualify for the World Cup,” Gurbaz informed.

Despite being an opener, Gurbaz came to bat in this match as No.7 batter as he sustained an injury that left his participation in the third game in doubt.

“I don’t know but suddenly something (injury) happened to my knee. Now I am going for an MRI, hopefully there’s nothing serious.”

Bangladesh posted 306-4 in this second ODI thanks to a sublime 136 of Liton and a delightful 86 of Mushfiqur Rahim. Afghanistan’s chase never got off the mark as they were dismissed for 218 in 45.1 overs.

“If you look at the target, we tried to keep them within 250 runs. But their total was a little bit more than our expectations. The wicket wasn’t that much difficult for batting but we made some mistakes like the run-out at the start,” Gurbaz remarked.

Gurbaz also showed his concern as Afghans conceded 33 extras in this match, which helped Bangladesh post a big total.

“I think 33 extras are too much in ODI cricket. We are working on that, so hopefully in the next game we should not do it again. It will be better in the next game,” he said.

The Afghanistan wicket-keeper batter however praised Liton and Mushfiqur to play well against the best spin attack.

“They (Mushfiqur and Liton) did really well against the best spinners in the world. Striking boundaries against them is not easy. But Mushfiq and Liton did really well. They played well actually,” he concluded.