Rahmanullah Gurbaz hit a cracking century and Azmatullah Omarzai showed allround skills on Monday to give Afghanistan a five wicket victory over Bangladesh in their third ODI in Sharjah on Monday night.Omarzai took four wickets before hitting an undefeated 77-ball 70 and opener Gurbaz hit a 120-ball 101 as Afghanistan chased down a 245-run target in 48.2 overs in Sharjah.The victory gave Afghanistan a 2-1 win in the series in Sharjah.
Afghanistan won the first match by 92 runs while Bangladesh took the second by 68 runs.The series win is Afghanistan's third successive this year, having also beaten Ireland (2-0) and South Africa (2-1) following their wins over England, Pakistan and Sri Lanka in last year's World Cup in India.Gurbaz, who hit seven sixes and five boundaries in his eighth ODI century, fell in the 39th over with 61 needed.Omarzai hit five sixes and three boundaries and added 58 runs with Mohammad Nabi (27-ball 34) to avoid any turnaround, hitting the winning six.Speaking after the match, Afghanistan skipper Hashmatullah Shahidi said he was proud of his team.I am very happy as a captain,& said Shahidi.
&When we lost the toss we were a bit worried because it's tough to bat second in Sharjah but our batters did very well.Bangladesh's stand-in skipper Mehidy Hasan Miraz praised Afghanistan.I think credit goes to Afghanistan the way they played in this series,& he said.Gurbaz and Omarzai did very well and we couldn''t get wickets to win the match.Omarzai was awarded the Player of the Match for his outstanding all-round performance and managed to grab the award for the first time in international cricket.The Player of the Series award went to Mohammad Nabi for his heroic all-round performance in the series.He scored 135 runs at an impressive average of 67.50, including a crucial half-century (84).Afghanistan National Cricket Team will now be gearing up for their all-format tour to Zimbabwe where they will be meeting the hosts in three T20Is, starting on December 9 in Harare, followed by as many ODIs and a two-match test series in Bulawayo.