Delhi: In the triangular ODI series played at Sharjah Cricket Stadium, Afghanistan defeated Bangladesh by seven wickets and confirmed its place in the final. With this defeat, Bangladesh's hopes of reaching the final ended. Now Afghanistan will face Zimbabwe in the final on Friday.

Bangladesh had to win by a margin of more than 40 runs to reach the final, but the team, batting first, managed to score only 160 runs in 41.2 overs. In reply, Afghanistan scored 161 runs losing three wickets in 35.3 overs.

Eamon played a struggling innings

Bangladesh had a very bad start. Captain Tauheed Hridoy won the toss and decided to bat first, but Yamin Ahmedzai dismissed Tanjid Hasan Tamim and Soumya Sarkar on consecutive balls in the second over. After this Azmatullah Umarzai sent Nazmul Hussain Shanto and Captain Hridoy to the pavilion. By the seventh over, Bangladesh's score was 28 runs for four wickets.

After this Saif Hasan and Parvez Hussain Emon tried to handle the innings. There was a partnership of 93 runs between the two for the fifth wicket. Saif scored 41 runs, while Eamon played a brilliant inning of 70 runs. He hit five fours and two sixes. However, Rashid Khan dashed Bangladesh's hopes of a comeback by taking four wickets. In front of his bowling, the team lost its last five wickets in just 39 runs.

Afghanistan won due to Rahmat Shah's captaincy innings

Afghanistan's start to chase the target of 161 runs was also not special. Taskin Ahmed gave initial shocks to the team by dismissing Rahmanullah Gurbaz and Sadiqullah Atal. At one time, Afghanistan's score was 39 runs for two wickets in the seventh over.

However, after this the Bangladesh bowlers failed to create pressure. Captain Rahmat Shah led the team to victory by scoring unbeaten 67 runs. He made a partnership of 56 runs with Ibrahim Zadran and 66 runs with Hashmatullah Shahidi. Shahidi remained unbeaten after scoring 36 runs.

Whereas, Taskin Ahmed took two wickets, while Mustafizur Rahman got one success. Earlier, Zimbabwe had defeated Bangladesh by 99 runs, while Afghanistan had registered a big win over Zimbabwe by 158 runs.