The tigers cruised their way to an impressive win against India by a large margin off 79 runs on Thursday in the first ODI at the Shere Bangla national cricket stadium. This is the fourth time Bangladesh have achieved victory against them.
This was the first meeting between the two sides after the controversial World Cup Quarter Final which saw some questionable decisions from the umpires. By winning this match, not only have Bangladesh improved their chances of qualifying for the 2017 Champions Trophy but also delivered a payback for the loss in the World Cup.
The decisions to pick 4 fast bowlers which had originally come under scrutiny when the playing XI was announced proved advantageous for Bangladesh as debutant Mustafizur Rahman took a five for including two consecutive wickets in two balls to help Bangladesh home. He eventually finished with figures of 5 for 50 off 9.2 overs. In fact, the pacers were so successful that Captain Mashrafee Mortoza did not need to call on his most experienced spinner Shakib Al Hasan till after the 25th over.
Winning the toss and batting first, Bangladesh scored 307 all out off 49.4 overs. They were helped by the opening stand of 102 by Tamim Iqbal(60) and Soumya Sarker(54) both of whom got fifties. However, Bangladesh lost 3 quick wickets following a short rain delay after 15.4 overs but the partnership of 83 between Shakib Al Hasan(52) and Sabbir rahman(41) helped rebuild the innings and a quickfire innings of 34 from 27 from Nasir Hossain and 21 off 18 from skipper Mortoza helped Tigers reach a competitive score.
In reply, India started well with an opening partnership of 95 runs between Shikhar Dhawan(300 and Rohit Sharma(63). They were helped by two dropped catches from wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim. Mushfiqur would later compensate for this by holding on to 4 catches .However once the partnership was broken after Dhawan was caught behind off Taskin Ahmed by Mushfiqur Rahim, the Indian innings suffered a collapse as they lost 5 wickets for less than 30 runs. After that a fighting 60 run partnership by Suresh Raina(40 runs) and Ravindra Jadeja(32) could not do enough to save the match.
Aside from Mustrafizur, Taskin Ahmed returned impressive figures of 2 for 21 off 6 overs and Shakib managed to get 2 for 33 off 8. Skipper Mashrafee Mortoza also picked up a wicket as India were bundled out for 228.
For India, it was an extremely disappointing match. Their pacers were expensive and their batting order crumbled. The only notable performance with the ball was Ravichandran ashwin who got 3 for 51 off his 10.
Mustafizur Rahman was adjudged man of the match for his 5 wickets on debut.
Bangladesh will look to carry forward this performance in the next ODI of the series which takes place on 21st june at the shere bangla national stadium from 3 pm.
