Bangladesh found an unlikely hero in debutant left-arm seamer Mustafizur Rahman as the eighth-ranked side stunned the second-placed India by 79 runs in an eventful first game of the three-match series at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium here on Thursday.
Mustafizur, who had made an impact with a brilliant performance in his Twenty20 debut against Pakistan, captured five wickets to scuttle India’s chase of a challenging 307 after Mashrafe Mortaza had opted to bat on a favourable track.
Despite a 95-run partnership between its openers Rohit Sharma (63) and Shikhar Dhawan (30), India was bowled out for 228 runs to suffer its fourth ODI loss to Bangladesh.
The hosts, who had routed Pakistan 3-0 in April, continued its dream run in the 50-over format.
The win, which will give the host some valuable ranking points, bolstered Bangladesh’s bid for a berth in the 2017 Champions Trophy in England.
Mashrafe’s decision to field four full-time pacers had raised many questions before the start of the match. But the young Bangladeshi pace duo of Mustafizur and Taskin Ahmed bowled impressively to dispel the doubts.
Rohit kept his team in the hunt with some extraordinary stroke-play, but no other Indian batsman could carry forward his good work.
It was ironical that in the backdrop of the both captains’ intent to move on from the controversy relating to the World Cup quarterfinal, the first ODI generated enough unpleasant incidents.
In the first instance, umpire Rodney Tucker adjudged Dhawan caught behind off Mortaza in the 10th over even before the catch was completed. Even as the Indian opener was walking, the Bangladesh fielders threw the ball at the stumps and appealed for a run out. Realising his mistake, Tucker restored order before it was too late.
The other one enraged the spectators as Indian captain M.S. Dhoni collided with Mustafizur while taking a run off the second ball of the 25th over. The bowler, who was earlier warned by Rohit for the same reason, temporarily left the ground because of the impact.
Before that, India had lost three wickets in the space of seven overs.
Taskin, who had dismissed Dhawan, struck again to remove Virat Kohli, and 19-year-old Mutafizur removed Rohit and Ajinkya Rahane with well-disguised slower deliveries.
Dhoni’s departure in the 26th over pleased the crowd. It also signalled the end of the Indian challenge as Mustafizur returned to bag three more wickets.
Record opening stand A record stand of 102 runs by its openers, Tamim Iqbal (60) and Soumya Sarkar (54), had propelled Bangladesh to its highest total against India in ODIs. Despite struggling to time the ball, Tamim used his experience to launch an early onslaught while Sarkar used his exceptional timing to leave the Indians baffled.
The latter set the tone with a fluent off-drive and two massive pulls off Bhuvneshwar, and went on to punish Ashwin and Mohit too when they erred in length.
Sarkar was magnificently run out by a diving Suresh Raina following a mix-up with Tamim.
A drizzle stopped the match for an hour and that seemed to affect Bangladesh’s momentum.
Ashwin rediscovered his touch and Raina bowled a tidy spell to apply the brakes on the home team.
Ashwin had Tamim held by Rohit at mid-off in the 18th over before trapping debutant Liton Das with a classic off-break. He then had Rahim holing out to Rohit at long-on.
However, Shakib Al Hasan (52) and Shabbir Rahaman (41) consolidated in the middle stage, and Nasir Hossain (34) and Mortaza (21) provided the finishing touches.
The teams
India: Shikhar Dhawan, Rohit Sharma, Virat Kohli, Ajinkya Rahane, Suresh Raina, MS Dhoni (capt and wk), Ravindra Jadeja, Ravichandran Ashwin, Bhuvneshwar Kumar, Umesh Yadav, Mohit Sharma
Bangladesh: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Litton Das, Mushfiqur Rahim (wk), Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Mustafizur Rahman, Rubel Hossain, Taskin Ahmed.
