Afghanistan beat Bangladesh by 5 wickets to clinch the ODI series by 2-1 on Monday (November 11) in Sharjah. An all-rounder brilliance from Azmatullah Omarzai, which includes a superb four wicket-haul with the ball and an outstanding with the bat helped Afghanistan seal the match.

Opting to bat first, Bangladesh started off to a flier. Tanzid Hasan Tamim and Soumya Sarkar stitched a superb 53-run opening stand before Mohammad Nabi removed Tamim for 19 off 29 balls. Soumya played some delightful shots as he made 24 off 23 balls before being knocked over to Azmatullah Omarzai.

Bangladesh lost two back-to-back wickets and soon were reduced to 72-4. Stand-in skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz and veteran batter Mahmudullah Riyad strung together and kept steering the ship for Bangladesh.

The duo started slowly but kept the ship going on. Miraz notched up a fifty and scored a gutsy 66 off 119 balls before departing to Omarzai. Bangladesh again had a mini collapse as Jaker Ali and Nasum Ahmed departed cheaply.

Mahmudullah Riyad stood tall and single handedly demolished Afghanistan bowling lineup and scored a sensational 98 off 98 balls and helped Bangladesh get to 244 runs on the board.
In reply, debutant express pacer Nahid Rana knocked over Sediqullah Atal cheaply. Mustafizur Rahman then had two wickets in quick time. But wicketkeeper batter Rahmanullah Gurbaz and all-rounder Azmatullah Omarzai stitched a game changing partnership of 100 runs between them.

Gurbaz notched up a fantastic hundred during the partnership before falling to Miraz after scoring 101 off 120 balls. But Omarzai was still there and was batting fluently.

He found Mohammad Nabi in and the duo comfortably steered Afghanistan home as the duo stitched up a fine 58-run stand.

Azmatullah Omarzai was awarded as the player of the match for his superb four wicket-haul and an incredible 70* off 77 deliveries to help Afghanistan clinch the series.