Plan was to play normal cricket against the spinners: Afif
Afghanistan spin trio-Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi were believed to wreck havoc on the Bangladeshi batters but two youngsters Afif and Mehidy Hasan Miraz dealt with them with utmost confidence to sail Bangladesh home.
Bangladesh had a specific plan to play normal cricket against the spin trio of Afghanistan and take calculative risk against pace bowlers, said Afif Hossain.
Afghanistan spin trio-Rashid Khan, Mujeeb Ur Rahman and Mohammad Nabi were believed to wreck havoc on the Bangladeshi batters but two youngsters Afif and Mehidy Hasan Miraz dealt with them with utmost confidence to sail Bangladesh home.
"There was a specific plan to play our normal cricket against the spinners and take a calculative risk against pacers. From the dressing room the advice was to play normal cricket without losing any wicket," Afif said.
"Everyone in the dressing room believed that we could have won the game had we stayed in the crease till the end," he added.
Afif Hossain and Mehidy Hasan Miraz played the innings of their life as Bangladesh recovered from a precarious 45-6 to script a stunning four-wicket victory over Afghanistan.
Both of them hit their career-best knock in the process to frustrate Afghanistan. Afif hit an unbeaten 93 off 115, clobbering 11 fours and one six and Miraz was not out on 81 after hitting nine fours in his 120-ball knock.
They combined for a 174-run partnership, which was Bangladesh's best for the seventh and second best in ODI cricket history, behind 177 by England's Jos Buttler and Adil Rashid against New Zealand in 2015.
Their wavering resolve in the partnership helped Bangladesh race to the victory with seven balls to spare with 219-6 after Afghanistan were bowled out for 215 in 49.1 overs.
"After losing six wickets, our only goal was not to give away any wicket. I was batting with the goal that I could spend as long as I could without giving away my wicket."
"Miraz Bhai has batted very well. When the boundary was needed, he hit the boundary to ease the pressure. We tried not to play many dot balls."
The 93 not out is Miraz's maiden half-century plus knock as he rated his innings as unarguably the best because it came against a best bowling attack.
"To me, today's innings is definitely better. Because today's innings was against world class bowlers. Today's situation was different. Today I had to stay on the wicket, I was successful by the grace of Allah."
