DHAKA, June 18, Broadcasting News Corporation: –Nineteen-year-old left arm Mustafizur Rahman devastating 5-wicket bowling spells saw Bangladesh blew India by 79 runs to avenge their World Cup defeat in the first of the three-ODI series match on Thursday at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium.
First it was the Tiger batsmen who posted 307 runs on board batting then the young debutant Mustafiz who tormented almost every batsmen with his lethal slow bowling to rip through the famed Indian batting line-up well supported by Mashrafee Bin Mortaza, Shakib Al Hasan and Taskin Ahmed saw their famed rival bundled out for 228 run in 46 overs to chase a challenging winning target of 308 runs.
Thanks to debutant left hand medium pacer Mustafizur Rahman for his five-wicket haul in debut match. He not only made his but match memorable but also helped Bangladesh to take of a sweet revenge of their World Cup quarterfinal defeat to India.
The only other Bangladesh bowler to take a five-wicket haul on debut is Taskin Ahmed, who had figures of 5 for 28 against India in 2014.
Commenting about Mustafizur Rahman in Star Sports channel after the match, Indian great bowler Kapil Dev praised Rahman by saying that he is better than Pakistani all time great bowler Wasim Akram in his debut match.
India’s openers Shikhar Dhawan and Rohit Sharma gave their team a solid start with a 95-run partnership chasing Bangladesh’s huge total of 307 run.
Taskin Ahmed brought the first breakthrough for Tigers when he sent back opener Shikhar Dhawan for 30 runs.The left-handed batsman, who was dropped by Mushfiq twice, played 38 balls and struck three boundaries in his brief knock.
Taskin then sent back Indian batting superstar Virat Kohli (1) in his fourth over of the innings. Virat played a loose shot to a short-of-length, wide ball and ended up nicking to the wicketkeeper Mushfiqur Rahim behind the stumps.
Another opener Rohit Sharma’s looked comfortable on the wicket as he played a promising knock that was cut short at 63 when Mustafizur Rahman picked up his debut ODI wicket. The right handed Rohit’s 63 came from 68 balls, with four 4s and a towering six.
Debutant Rahman enjoyed his second wicket haul as he dismissed middle order batsman Ajinkya Rahane for 9 runs while India lost their fifth wicket of their skipper Mahendra Singh Dhoni for 5 runs, leaving India in a deep trouble.
Dependable batsman Suresh Raina (40) and Ravindra Jadeja (32) were the last hope pair for India, but Mustafiz was not in a mood of mercy as he dismissed the duo to bring the match total under control.
Apart from Rahman’s five wicket haul for 50 runs, Taskin Ahmed and Shakib Al Hasan bagged two wickets apiece giving away 21 and 33 runs respectively.
Mustafizur Rahman of Bangladesh was named the player of the match fir his impressive bowling performance.
Earlier, fantastic batting by openers followed by sensible batting performance saw the home team amassed a daunting score of 307 in 49.4 overs against India.
This is also Bangladesh’s highest total against India in ODIs, surpassing the previous best of 296 for six at the same venue in 2010.
Openers Soumya Sarkar (54 off 40 balls) and Tamim Iqbal (60 off 62 balls) gave Bangladesh to a flying start contributing 102 runs for the opening stand in only 13.4 overs to lay a solid foundation.
All rounder Shakib al Hasan (52 off 68 balls), Sabbir Rahaman (41 off 44 balls) and Nasir Hossain (34) batted well in the middle-order helped the hosts to a commanding total.
While Ravichandran Ashwin (3/51 in 10 overs) was the most successful bowler for India He was well supported by Umesh Yadav (2/58 in 8 overs) and Mohit Sharma (1/53 in 4.3 overs), who were especially taken apart by the Bangladeshi batsmen.
Ravindra Jadeja (1/48) was good in patches and Bhuvneshwar Kumar (2/37 in 7 overs) ended with a decent outing.
The Indian bowlers somewhat redeemed themselves in the final 10 overs in which Bangladesh scored only 57 runs and lost the last five wickets for only 40 runs.
Bangladesh openers Soumya Sarkar and Tamim started in a whirlwind fashion after their skipper Mashrafe Mortaza opted to bat on a good surface.
While Tamim played and missed a lot during the first few overs, Sarkar was more assured with his footwork as he repeatedly lofted the duo of Bhuvenshwar and Yadav over the in-field. There were some lofted cover drives as well as pull-shots in the arc between mid-wicket and square leg.
When Ashwin was initially brought into the attack, Sarkar lofted him over deep midwicket for a huge six. The coveted half-century came off 38 balls when he just guided a delivery from Mohit over keeper’s head for a one bounce four.
To be fair to Tamim, once he got a couple of boundaries, he also matched his junior colleague stroke for stroke even though Sarkar’s batting was more pleasing to the eye.
Earlier, Bangladesh introduced two debutants in their line-up in uncapped wicketkeeper-batsman Litton Das and left-arm medium pacer Mustafizur Rahman.
The second ODI between the two sides will be played on Sunday (June 21) at the same venue.