Debutant Mossadek's golden touch

Bangladesh's No.11 Rubel Hossain prepared to face the hat-trick delivery from Rashid Khan after the legspinner had trapped Taijul Islam and Taskin Ahmed leg-before off successive balls. Rubel spotted a couple of slips and a gully, and then shuffled across to keep out Rashid's googly. The defence drew widespread appreciation from the ground.

Mosaddek Hossain has been in such good form that his ODI debut was almost inevitable. After having impressed with 45 in Bangladesh's innings, Mosaddek was thrown the ball. Given the purple patch that he had hit lately, there was immediately a feeling that he might bring with him more luck for Bangladesh. It took just one ball to prove those believers right as Mosaddek dismissed Hashmatullah Shahidi with the first ball of his ODI career, becoming the first Bangladesh player to do so. It broke a thriving 45-run stand for the third wicket, and gave Bangladesh hope.

Soumya Sarkar had picked out midwicket with a weak pull in the first ODI. On Wednesday, he offered a simple catch to cover, but it wasn't a soft dismissal. Sarkar hacked at the ball and eyed the leg side, but ended up skewing a catch to Hashmatullah Shahidi. The simplicity of the catch sometimes forces one to term it a "soft dismissal", but Sarkar's slog suggested otherwise.

Nawroz Mangal, however, fell to a soft dismissal, after he misread Shakib Al Hasan's length in the fourth over of Afghanistan's chase. Mangal had started off with a couple of boundaries, but when Shakib made the ball stop on him, he was left surprised. The ball was ultimately patted back to cover where Taijul completed the job.

Shakib had just removed the dangerous Mohammad Shahzad in the 16th over and followed it up by nearly finding Mohammad Nabi's outside edge off the next delivery. But Asghar Stanikzai, the Afghanistan captain, set to work by blasting the last ball of that over for six over wide long-on. It seemed like a message to Bangladesh that even though Shahzad was gone, the aggression wouldn't be reined in.