It was a disappointing end to a dream series as the Tigers registered a loss to India by 77 runs in the 3rd and final ODI of the series.
Winning the toss, Bangladesh captain Mashrafee Mortoza opted to field. Being put to bat, the Indian team had a much better day than the first two games and went on to post a daunting total of 317 for 6 off their allotted 50 overs.
India lost their first wicket for 39 runs when Rohit Sharma (29) was caught behind by Litton Das off the bowling of wonder boy Mustafizur Rahman.
Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli then had a good partnership of 75 runs before Kohli was bowled off Shakib Al Hasan for 25. Shikhar Dhawan (who scored 75 off 73) would fall soon after with the score at 158.
However, the 4th wicket partnership between skipper MS Dhoni and Ambatti Rayudu would prove to be the most useful for India. The 93 run partnership which came off 100 balls at a run rate of 5.58 helped the Men in Blue achieve a competitive total of 317.
MS Dhoni batting at no.4 played confidently for his 69 which came off 77 balls. He hit 6 fours and 1 six in his innings. He was supported at the other end by Rayudu who also played well to reach 44 off 49 which included 3 fours.
By the time both of them had been dismissed, India was cruising at 268 for 5. A quick fire 38 off 21 from Raina helped accelerate the Indian innings before Stuart Binny (17 off 11) and Axar Patel (10 off 5) finished the innings for the tourists.
The Bangladesh bowling was not as tight as the last two games and Mortoza, Arafat Sunny and Rubel Hossain went for over 7 an over. Mortoza picked up 3 wickets and Mustafizur continued his good form to pick up 2-57 off his 10.
Shakib however bowled exceptionally well and picked up a wicket for only 33 runs off his 9 overs at an economy rate of only 3.66. Nasir was also economical and gave only 27 runs in his 6 overs despite being wicket less today.
In reply, Bangladesh lost Tamim Iqbal early in the innings with score reading only 8.However a 54 run partnership between Soumya Sarkar and Litton Das helped stabilise the innings.
Soumya played beautifully for his 40 which came off just 34 balls (hitting 5 fours and 2 sixes) before he was caught by Ashwin off the bowling of Kulkarni in the second ball of the 10th over. This was followed by another solid 50 run partnership between Mushfiqur Rahim(24) and Litton Das(34) which came off 58 balls.
However, once the partnership was broken by Raina, Bangladesh kept losing wickets at regular intervals and eventually was bowled out for 240.
A fighting partnership of 49 runs between Nasir Hossain(32 off 30) and Sabbir Rahman (44 off 38) later in the innings was not enough to save the innings. Shakib al Hassan also got a start and scored 20 runs but no Bangladesh batsmen could go on to post a big match winning score today.
Suresh Raina was the pick of the Indian bowlers taking 3 for 45 off his 8 overs. In addition, Dhawal Kulkarni and Ravichandran Ashwin bowled economically and finished with 2 wickets each. Stuart binny and Ambatti Rayudu got a wicket each.
Suresh Raina was also adjudged Man of the Match for his all-round performance of 3 wickets with the ball and 38 runs with the bat while Tiger bowler Mustafizur Rahman was adjudged Man of the Series for his amazing performance throughout the series – finishing with 13 wickets in 3 matches.
Despite not being able to complete the whitewash, this series will give the Tigers a lot of confidence for the way they performed and they will be looking to carry the good work on to their next assignment which will be a home series against the South African Proteas.
