THE Hampshire Bowl’s World Cup finale was lit up by Shakib Al Hasan as the Bangladesh all-rounder, the competition’s top run scorer, bowled his country to a convincing win against Afghanistan.

Shakib revelled in a “very satisfying” all-round display after inspiring Bangladesh to a 62-run victory in West End..

Bangladesh moved to within one point of the top-four in the World Cup - although all teams above them have played at least one game fewer - after Shakib followed up a fifty with 5-29, the best figures of the tournament.

His patient 51 from 69 balls on a challenging surface was the fifth time in his last six innings he has exceeded a half-century while he became the first bowler from Bangladesh to take a five-for in the tournament.

He said: “I don’t rank my performance at all, but it is very satisfying when I’m contributing both ball and bat. It gives me more satisfaction rather than contributing in one sector. So it is very satisfying.

Bangladesh need to beat India and Pakistan in their final two group games and hope results elsewhere go in their favour if they are to advance to the semi-finals.

Shakib insists their only priority will be to focus on what they can control.

He said: “It will be difficult, but we have the belief that we can play well in next two matches and get the result. That’s all we can do at this moment.

“We have to look at the other results as well, but first things first, we have to play two very important matches and get the results in our favour.

“We have a very important game coming up against India. They are the top side.

“They are looking at the title. So it’s not going to be easy, but having said that, we’ll give our best shot.”

Shakib’s sensational run of form comes a couple of months after a modest Indian Premier League campaign, in which he was regularly left out by Sunrisers Hyderabad.

But the 32-year-old added: “I never felt that I had a point to prove.

“I did everything I could do before the World Cup started for my preparation, and luckily it’s been helping me a lot.”

Afghanistan succumbed to their seventh successive defeat, with captain Gulbadin Naib’s decision to bowl first on a pitch used for their narrow defeat to India on Saturday causing consternation.

However, Gulbadin insists it was more a case of poor fielding that allowed Bangladesh to get to 262-7, with Afghanistan all out for 200 in response after 47 overs.

The Afghanistan captain said: “I’m happy with the toss, but if you look at the match, we missed a couple of catches and gave some extra runs. We gave away 30, 35 runs. Because of mis-fielding we missed the opportunity again.

“But praise goes to Shakib. He bowled really well. He’s the world number one all-rounder.”