Mirpur: Mehidy Hasan Miraz led a major comeback towards the end to stun India with an unbeaten 51 runs last wicket stand in the first ODI match here on Sunday.
Mehidy was an epitome of calmness and played a controlled innings in company of the last batsman Mustafizur Rahman, who made a very crucial an unbeaten 10 off 11 balls with two boundaries.
Probably they could have learnt from a match played six years ago when they had lost the match going for glory when they needed 2 off the last 3 balls.
Teammates lifted Miraz after he drove Deepak Chahar in the gap on the off-side for a single to register a historic victory, and an absolutely thrilled Mushfiqur Rahim congratulated him with his eyes almost popping out.
This was a roller coaster of a game. India put on a dismal 186 in 41.2 overs, which in any case was not a defendable total. However, their bowlers dictated the terms in the middle overs.
Bangladesh slumped from 128/5 to 136/9, after Mohammad Siraj and debutant Kuldeep Sen, in company of Shardul Thakur, ran through them with a vengeance. But, Mehidy and Mustafizur put the brakes on and built a match-winning partnership.
Mehidy however should be thankful to makeshift wicketkeeper KL Rahul who dropped the catch when Bangladesh were 155/9 in 42.2 overs.
Record wise, the last wicket partnership was the second-highest for Bangladesh in ODIs for the tenth wicket. It was also the fourth-highest partnership for the tenth wicket in a successful run-chase in men's ODIs.
Earlier, Bangladesh won the toss and invited India to bat and soon their spinners wiped out Rohit Sharma (27), Shikhar Dhawan (7) and Virat Kohli (9), quickly.
Ebadot Hossain used pace and bounce on to join Shakib Al Hasan's party and the duo shared 9 wickets between them. The Indian batsmen had no clue as Shakib ended with best figures of 5/36 by a left-arm spinner against India in ODIs.
Indian batsmen were casual in their approach as two of them got out reverse sweeping. Shreyas Iyer (24 off 39) got his eye in, but could not make an impact.
Washington Sundar (19 off 43) was all set for a good innings, but threw it away. Rahul (73 off 70) waged a lone battle, holding one end and then accelerating later to give some respectability.
The next match between the two nations will be played on Wednesday afternoon. (UNI)
