Bangladesh vs India, 2nd ODI, Top performances: Mehidy Hasan Miraz’s all-round show (100, 2-46), Shreyas Iyer-Axar Patel’s 107-run stand and Ebadot Hossain’s 3-45 are top performances as Bangladesh beat India and win 2nd ODI series.
Brief Scores: Bangladesh 271/7 (Mehidy 100*, Mahmudullah 77, Sundar 3/37) beat India 266/9 (Shreyas 82, Axar 56, Ebadot 3/45) by 5 runs
Player of the Match: Mehidy Hasan Miraz (100* and 2/46)
After a narrow escape during the first of the three-match One Day International (ODI) series, hosts Bangladesh locked horns with India in the second ODI game at the Shere Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur on Wednesday.
India lack experience in bowling department to deal with the tail
The same issue persisted for India, where even after taking a few top order wickets, they failed to destroy the middle and lower order, and that has been a concern for them for a long time. That’s mostly because of lack of experience in their bowling department.
They need to think to address the issue as soon as possible, and include someone who knows how to deal with such sort of situations.
Bangladesh held their nerves yet again to capture narrow victory to earn second series win against India
Bangladesh captain Litton Das, on winning the toss, decided to bat first on a pitch that was expected to offer the same sort of turn and bounce like the previous game but the brownness of the surface suggested that it might give the batters little more time. Bangladesh removed Hasan Mahmud to include Nasum Ahmed, while India made two changes as Shahbaz Ahmed and Kuldeep Sen made way for Axar Patel and Umran Malik.
India began well with couple of wickets in the first powerplay as they reduced the hosts to 44/2 in 10 overs, before putting more pressure on Bangladesh at regular intervals. Washington Sundar’s back-to-back wickets in the same over saw Bangladesh reaching just 96/6 at the halfway mark. But the 148-run stand for the seventh wicket between Mahmudullah and Mehidy Hasan Miraz, which was the highest seventh wicket stand against India in ODIs, took them to 217/7 in 46.1 overs.
Mehidy with his maiden century propelled Bangladesh to 271/7 in their allotted 50 overs. The hosts scored a whopping 68 runs for the loss of just one wicket in the last five overs.
Chasing 272 with a new opening pair of Virat Kohli and Shikhar Dhawan in the absence of Rohit Sharma who damaged his left thumb, India were restricted to 65/4 in 18.3 overs, before the partnership of Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel took them to 117/4 at the halfway stage. The duo kept the hopes alive of India’s supporters with a 107-run stand but Bangladesh came back with crucial wickets at regular intervals. Injured Rohit Sharma tried hard with his 51* but the hosts held their nerves to earn another narrow victory by 5 runs.
Let’s scan the top three performances from the second ODI game between Bangladesh and India in Mirpur.
Rescue man Mehidy Hasan Miraz registers vital maiden ODI century
During the first ODI when Bangladesh were under all sorts of pressure at 136/9, chasing 187, young Mehidy Hasan Miraz came out with different plans and carried his team over the line with his unbeaten 38 runs in an unbelievable victory.
The hosts were in a similar position as they found themselves at 69/6 in 19 overs, when Mehidy met Mahmudullah in the middle. The former began with a fiery boundary against Washington Sundar off the front foot in the backward point region, before cutting Axar Patel through short third man. Mehidy didn’t hesitate to use his feet as he crunched Sundar over the long-on region for a huge six, before slog sweeping Axar over deep mid-wicket for the same result.
With a single, Mehidy raised his bat for his third ODI fifty in just 55 balls as he was getting full support from Mahmudullah from the other end. The duo soon brought up a century run partnership for the seventh wicket.
Mehidy then took on Umran Malik in the 49th over as he thumped three boundaries against the speedster – the first one was drilled through the gap between mid-off and extra cover, while the second and third one were punched through extra cover and guided over the keeper’s head as Mehidy smelt his maiden ODI century.
In the last over bowled by Shardul Thakur, he targeted the shorter leg side to crack a huge six over deep backward square leg before he heaved the fourth ball over deep mid-wicket for another maximum. With a single off the last ball of the innings, Mehidy Hasan Miraz recorded his maiden ODI century in just 83 balls with the help of eight boundaries and six boundaries.
Mehidy also joined Ireland’s Simi Singh to score an ODI hundred coming at number eight. The right-hand batter now has 202 ODI runs in four innings against India at an average of 101. Mehidy has scored 753 ODI runs in 66 games where he has also picked 78 wickets.
In this game, he picked up two vital wickets of KL Rahul and Shreyas Iyer to finish with 2/46 in six overs.
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Shreyas Iyer-Axar Patel record 107-run stand kept hopes alive for India
Chasing 272, India were under pressure early on at 7/1 in the second over when Shreyas Iyer walked into the middle at number three. He has been in excellent touch in the 50-overs game in this year, and India expected something special from him again.
Iyer began with a beautiful boundary against Ebadot Hossain, as he glanced a leg-sided ball away in the fine leg region before using his feet to smash Nasum Ahmed for a six over long-on. Iyer took the left-arm spin of Nasum, as he drilled him for two back-to-back boundaries behind square and through the off side. He cracked a four against Mehidy in the third man region before smashing the same bowler for another maximum over deep mid on as he notched up his 14th ODI fifty.
Iyer was well-supported by Axar Patel, who from his first ball looked to be positive as he started with a huge six that was drilled against Nasum over the bowler’s head. He then slog swept Shakib for a huge six, before walloping Mahmudullah for a four in the mid-wicket region.
Iyer punched another boundary against Nasum into the off-side before being dismissed on 82 in 102 balls, as he became the leading run scorer in ODIs for India in 2022 with 721 runs. He now has 1534 runs in 38 ODI games. With a six, Axar reached his second ODI fifty as he scored 56 (56) with two boundaries and three maximums to take his ODI runs tally to 329 in 45 games. They shared a record 107-run stand for the fifth wicket to keep India in the hunt.
Read More: How India shape up with ICC Men’s ODI World Cup 2023 less than a year away
Ebadot Hossain breathes fire with 3/45
Defending 272 with India already being down with the injury scare to Rohit Sharma, Bangladesh needed to take couple of early wickets to put India under all sorts of pressure.
Ebadot Hossain drew first blood with the big wicket of Virat Kohli on 5, who in an attempt to pull the short ball dragged it onto the stumps because of the lack of bounce off the track. When Hossain was reintroduced into the attack in the 39th over, he registered another big wicket in the form of Axar Patek (56) who after a quiet last over wanted to go over covers but only found the hand of the short cover fielder, as India lost their sixth wicket. Coming on to bowl his last over, he sent back Deepak Chahar who was a bit early in attempting a pull shot as the mid-wicket fielder grabbed an easy catch.
Ebadot Hossain who returned figures of 3/45, has now got nine ODI wickets in three games.
What’s to Come
Both teams will now take on each other for the third game of the three-match ODI series on December 10 at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chattogram.
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