Hasan Mahmud earned his first five-wicket haul as Bangladesh’s seam attack blitzed through Ireland to set up a resounding 10-wicket win in the final ODI to sweep the series 2-0.
Asked to field first on Thursday, Mahmud (5-32), Taskin Ahmed (3-26) and Ebadot Hossain (2-29) shared all 10 wickets among themselves to skittle the visitors out for a measly 101 at the Sylhet International Stadium on Thursday.
It was the first time Bangladesh won a match by 10 wickets in ODIs. It was also the first time their seamers picked up all 10 wickets in a match, surpassing their previous best of eight from 2019.
Tamim Iqbal (41*) and Litton Das (50*) followed up the pace bowling show with a resilient one with the bat and made short work of the chase.
They breezed to 81 in the powerplay before Litton brought up his half-century off 37 deliveries with a sweep off Mathew Humphreys, which also took the opening pair to their fifth century stand.
The pair cracked 15 boundaries and 2 sixes between themselves to wrap up the win inside 13.1 overs.
For Ireland, it was a tough ask from the outset as both Mahmud and Taskin generated late outswing and reduced the visitors to 26 for 4 in the 10th over.
Lorcan Tucker (28) and Curtis Campher (36) then put up resistance in a 42-run fifth wicket stand and became the only two Irish batters to reach double-digit figures.
But Ebadot then landed a double blow to dent any Irish hopes of a comeback.
Spinners Nasum Ahmed (0-11) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (0-3) were introduced late but little was asked of them as Mahmud mopped up the rest of the Irish batters to top off a dominating display.
The teams will play three T20s in Chattogram starting Mar 27 before a one-off Test in Mirpur on Apr 4.
After the match, skipper Tamim said: “Unbelievable. The way we played the whole series was very nice. Now I can proudly say we have a solid, solid, solid fast-bowling department.”
“Players like Miraz, when they start performing with the bat, we can go in with a batter short. We need to keep believing in our players, there will be ups and downs but we have the unit to be the best in the world.”
Adjudged Player of the Series, Mushfiqur Rahim said: “Another series win, all the boys chipped in well, which was great. The conditions were good in the first two games. The top order did well and set up situations where we could express ourselves.”
Hasan Mahmud, who was adjudged Player of the Match, said: “Grateful for everyone, very excited with the performance. The weather and conditions helped the fast bowlers and I enjoyed bowling here.”
“Allan Donald has been the one man who’s been behind our improvement, the bowlers have improved gradually as well. We have been working hard on moving the new balls away and hitting our lengths.”
Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie said: “We’re very disappointed. Don’t think the cricket over the past three days reflects the type of cricket we’ve played in the last 2-3 years. We did expect spin to play a big part, but our defence with the bat wasn’t good enough.”
“We did not adapt well enough. We had a good T20 World cup in Australia, and will have to be a lot better to show up there. Our fielding has been okay, but it’s been our batting that has let us down.”
