India avert ignominy of Bangladesh ODI series whitewash with 77-run win

India have avoided the humiliation of a series sweep against Bangladesh by winning the third and final match by 77 runs and end the hosts’ 10-match winning streak at home in ODIs.

Sports Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 24 June 2015, 08:47 AM
Updated : 24 June 2015, 10:31 PM

Sent in to bat first, a collective batting effort helped the tourists post 317 for six at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.

Gritty knocks from Shikhar Dhawan (75) and captain Mahendra Singh Dhoni (69) were backed by some lusty hitting in the death overs by Suresh Raina (38 off 21).

Young seamer Mustafizur Rahman returned 2 for 57 and signed up beside Australia’s Ryan Harris with a world record haul of 13 wickets in three matches in a series.

But Harris had done it in a five-match series, against Pakistan in 2009.

Bangladesh were off to a bright start in their chase but lost wickets regularly.

They paced the innings well matching the required rate until the mid-overs but Indian spinners made life difficult for the batsmen who crumbled under pressure.

Eventually, the Tigers were bowled out for 240 in 47 overs.

Most of the Bangladesh batsmen, barring Tamim Iqbal, got starts but none managed to continue long enough.

They got out trying to keep up with the required run rate as only Sabbir Rahman (43) and Soumya Sarkar (40) put up some resistance.

Soumya gave Bangladesh a rollicking start despite losing his opening partner Tamim (5) in the second over and the hosts crossed 50 inside seven overs.

But India paceman Dhawal Kulkarni, who had also trapped Tamim lbw, sent back the 22-year old opener after his 34-ball knock that included five fours and two sixes.

Soumya went for another but failed to pick Kulkarni’s slower, skying a catch to Ravichandran Ashwin at mid-on.

Mushfiqur Rahim (24) and Liton Kumar Das (34) steadied the ship with another 50 as the hosts looked up to the task on 112 for 2 in the 19th over.

But they were back in the hutch in the span of four overs to leave the team with a daunting task to chase.

Man-of-the-Match Suresh Raina brought India back in the game with Mushfiq’s scalp while Liton Das soon departed as Axar Patel’s only wicket.

Shakib Al Hasan (20) looked promising for a while until he mistimed a slog sweep Raina and the edge was caught brilliantly by Kulkarni at long-on.

With their batting pillars down, Bangladesh had all but lost the match on 148 for five in the 27th over.

Sabbir, however, kept the chase alive with Nasir Hossain (32) as the duo combined caution with aggression to pull things back with a 38-ball 49 run partnership.

But Stuart Binny outwitted Sabbir with a cutter that rattled his stumps and ended any remaining hopes for Bangladesh.

Nasir resisted but got no support and when he fell for Ashwin’s second in the 40th over, the tail-enders only delayed the inevitable.

Raina was the pick of the Indian bowlers with 3 for 45 while Ashwin and Kulkarni took two wickets each.

Earlier, Mustafizur got Bangladesh’s first breakthrough by dismissing Rohit Sharma (29) for the third time in the series after India had got off to a decent start.

Sharma, looking fluent, chased another of his cutters that took an edge back to wicketkeeper Liton.

But Dhawan and Virat Kohli (25) steadied ship with a 75-run stand at a good scoring rate.

The left-handed opener continued his good form and seemed comfortable in the middle.

Dhawan smashed off-spinner Arafat Sunny for consecutive boundaries to reach his 14th half-century in as many balls after being dropped on 40 off a Nasir turner.

Shakib struck in his first over when Kohli (29) played a needless slog sweep to give away his wicket.

Bangladesh bowlers were still unable to halt the Indian charge as Dhoni promoted himself to number four in a desperate bid to put a big total on the board.

In a marauding mood, he belted Nasir for a four and a six in successive balls in the 23rd over.

The India captain put 44 more off 42 balls with Dhawan before Mashrafe Bin Mortaza sent the opener packing with a Nasir blinder at midwicket.

Dhawan’s dismissal slowed down India’s charge as Dhoni anchored the innings, with Ambati Rayudu (44) supporting his skipper superbly.

The duo frustrated the hosts by chipping in with regular ones and twos, and hitting timely boundaries.

Dhoni cracked four boundaries and a six to reach his 59th fifty off 58 balls before swatting Mashrafe down the ground for a boundary to take his team to 250 in the 44th over.

Mashrafe struck twice in successive overs to take both the batsmen out.

But the pair had already laid a strong platform for a late Indian onslaught with a fine 93-run fourth wicket stand.

Raina came out all guns blazing and hit three boundaries and two sixes before falling to Mustafizur.

The 19-year old beat Raina to rattle his stumps for his world record-equalling wicket.

Mashrafe bagged three wickets but conceded 76 runs in his 10 overs.

Rubel Hossain, too, was very expensive giving away 75 runs in his nine overs without a wicket.