Dhaka [Bangladesh], December 8 : Following his side's five-run win over India in the second ODI, Bangladesh all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz said that plan was to bat deep with Mahmudullah and he tried hitting good areas with his bowling and put pressure on the Men in Blue.
Bangladesh survived a late blitz from an injured Rohit Sharma to secure a narrow five-run win to take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match ODI series at the Shere Bangla National Stadium here on Wednesday.
"All credit goes to God for giving me an opportunity to do this. Nothing else to say. Feels very good. Last few years, I have worked hard on the batting and focused on certain areas to improve. My coaches have given me a lot of information on improving my game. Riyad Bhai (Mahmudullah) kept telling me that we need to keep playing deep into the innings and the conversations were mostly about keeping small targets of partnerships. I was just trying to hit the good areas with the ball and put pressure on them," said the all-rounder in a post-match presentation.
Bangladesh now has an unassailable lead of 2-0 in the series.
Opting to bat first, Bangladesh was off to a bad start and were reduced to 69/6. From that point, Mehidy Hasan Miraz (100*) and Mahmudullah (77) put a match-winning stand of 148 runs for the seventh wicket that powered their side to 271/7 in their 50 overs.
Washington Sundar (3/37) was the pick of the bowlers for India. Mohammed Siraj and Umran Malik also took two wickets.
Chasing 272, India was also reduced to 65/4 due to some fantastic bowling by Bangladesh. Shreyas Iyer (82) continued his golden run with the bat, putting a 107-run stand with bowling all-rounder Axar Patel (56) for the fifth wicket. After these two batters were dismissed, Bangladesh seemed to have made a comeback in the game.
However, skipper Rohit came down the order with an injured thumb and almost stole the game from Bangladesh, smashing an unbeaten 51 off 28 balls with three fours and five sixes. But a maiden 48th over played by Mohammed Siraj and bowled by Mustafizur Rahman boosted Bangladesh's chances of winning. However, Rohit carried on with his carnage, but Mustafizur held his nerves to defend 20 runs in the last over to pull off a memorable win.
Ebadot Hossain (3/45), Mehidy Hasan Miraz (2/46) were impressive for Bangladesh. Shakib also picked up two scalps while Mustafizur and Mahmudullah got one wicket each.
Mehidy's all-round performance earned him the 'Man of the Match' title.