Mehidy Hasan Miraz played a gem of an innings to pull Bangladesh out from a losing position and beat India by 1 wicket at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Sunday.
Chasing a mere total of 187, Mehidy played a match winning innings when others failed. His 39-ball 38 with 4 boundaries and 2 maximums guided Bangladesh to a famous win against India.
A game that ebbed and flowed all the way through ended up in Bangladesh's favour, courtesy of an almost unbelievable 51-run last-wicket stand between Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman. In all fairness, Bangladesh should have won this game quite easily, but defending 187, India came out all guns firing. Deepak Chahar picked a wicket of the first ball, Mohammed Siraj was exceptional in the middle overs, so was Washington Sundar.
The experienced batters, Litton Das, Shakib Al Hasan, Mushfiqur Rahim, and Mahmudullah, all got starts, but none of them could carry on till the end. Bangladesh were 95 for 3, then slipped to 136 for 9 in a dramatic collapse. It seemed the game would be over, everyone did, barring two men - Mehidy and Fizz. The duo added 51 off 41 balls to take their side home.
It was the highest 10th wicket partnership for Bangladesh. They have won this game out of nowhere. This is a famous win and all credit to Mehidy, who did not lose cool, and of course Mustafizur, who seriously deserves a promotion.
The game started with some tackiness with India struggling. Shakib bossed his way to a stunning five-wicket haul. KL Rahul played a grinding 73 to post a fighting total. India used all the help from the pitch - both pacers and spinners to put Bangladesh under pressure. Washington Sundar started the collapse by getting a set Litton Das and Bangladesh lost 7 wickets for 62 runs since then. India were cruising home with the passionate home crowd stunned, but Mehidy lifted their spirits shot by shot. Showed how a determined batter can still score runs on this pitch and in the end a bit of dew gave aid as well. Not to discount Fizz's valuable gluing at the end than trying to slog and let his partner down.
