Riding on another heroics of Mehidy Hasan Miraz, Bangladesh sealed an ODI series win against India on Wednesday at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium, beating the visitors by five runs. Rohit Sharma came back to bat despite sustaining a blow that required him to visit a hospital and scored a 27-ball fifty to give Bangladesh a real scare.In the last three overs, India needed 40 runs. Mustafizur Rahman recorded a maiden over in the 48th over against Mohammad Siraj. Mahmudullah Riyad conceded 20 runs off the 49th over, with Rohit hitting him for two sixes as two catches were dropped by Ebadot Hossain and Anamul Haque Bijoy.
Mustafizur came to bowl the 50th over and defended 20 runs despite Rohit smashing him for two fours and one six.It was the second straight win for Bangladesh in the series. Bangladesh won the first match by one wicket. On both occasions, Mehidy was the hero for Bangladesh. India began with a major setback in reply to Bangladesh’s 271 as their opener, Rohit, was injured during Bangladesh’s innings and was unable to start the innings.
Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan were dismissed within the first three overs of the innings. To recover from the early loss of Virat and Shikhar, Shreyas Iyer took the responsibility of leading India. He paired up with Washington Sundar, Lokesh Rahul, and Axar Patel to steady the ship after the initial damage.
Despite Washington and Lokesh being unable to provide the needed support, Axar scored an impressive 56 runs off 56 balls. The fifth-wicket partnership between Axar and Shreyas proved fruitful as they added more than 100 runs and brought India back into contention.
However, Mehidy sent Shreyas back to the pavilion for 82 runs.By the 43rd over, India were reduced to 207/7. This was when Rohit made a surprising comeback to the field to join Deepak Chahar after Shakib Al Hasan dismissed Shardul Thakur.
The Indian captain gave his all but failed to win the match as his team managed to score 266 for nine and lost the match by five runs.For Bangladesh, Ebadot Hossain took three wickets; Mehidy and Shakib bagged two wickets each. Earlier, despite a poor performance by the top and middle orders, Mehidy and Mahmudullah powered Bangladesh to 271 runs.
While Mahmudullah scored 77, Mehidy was not out for 100 off 83 balls- his best ODI innings- with eight fours and four sixes. After Bangladesh lost six wickets for 69 runs within 18 overs, Mehidy and Mahamudullah staged a remarkable recovery of 148 runs off 165 balls.Before their heroics, Siraj and Umran Malik gave Bangladesh a hard time after they elected to bat first.
Also, Siraj put Bangladesh under pressure early on by taking the wickets of Anamul Haque Bijoy and Liton Das in quick succession. Umran then removed Najmul Hossain Shanto with a lethal 151kmph ball.Washington Sundar then poured more misery on Bangladesh by taking the wickets of Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Afif Hossain.
When Bangladesh seemed to be heading toward collapse, Mehidy and Mahmudullah joined forces and rescued their team.Mehidy attacked the Indian bowling most in the last five overs when Bangladesh scored more than 60 runs – at an average exceeding 11.For India, Washington bagged three while Siraj and Umran shared four wickets among them.The final match of this series will be played on December 10 in Chattogram.
