Rohit’s late blitz not good enough as B’desh clinch series

Brief scores: Bangladesh 271/7 (Mehidy Hasan 100*, Mahmudullah 77; Washington Sundar 3-37) beat India 266/8 (Shreyas Iyer 82, Axar Patel 56, Rohit Sharma 51*; Ebadot Hossain 3-45) by 5 runs

Mirpur: India’s shoddy batting display and the inability to land the killer blow contributed to their second successive series loss in Bangladesh after the diminutive Mehidy Hasan Miraz led the hosts to a five-run win in the second ODI with a memorable hundred here on Wednesday.

Miraz tormented the Indian bowlers on way to his maiden century as Bangladesh staged a remarkable recovery to reach 271 for seven. India’s challenge looked all over at 207 for seven but skipper Rohit Sharma’s (51 not out off 28 balls) valiant effort went in-vain as he nearly took his team home while batting with a split left webbing.

India needed a six off the final ball of the game but Mustafizur did well to perfect the yorker under pressure after bowling a slew of slow leg-breaks in the 48th over forcing Mohammed Siraj to play out a maiden. Bangladesh had also won their last ODI series against at home back in 2015 when Mashrafe Mortaza’s men got the better of M S Dhoni and Co.

The series loss also forces India to go back to the drawing board with the World Cup less than 12 months away. At 65 for four, India were in dire straits in the run chase before a spirted 101-ball 107-run between Shreyas Iyer (82 off 102) and Axar Patel (56 off 56) brought them back into the contest.

Captain Rohit did not come out to open after hurting his elbow while fielding in Bangladesh’s innings. It was only after the fall of seventh wicket, he decided to walk into the middle but clearly looked in discomfort. It was a courageous call to come out with a heavily taped left thumb and Rohit did provide a ray of hope by collecting couple of sixes and four from Ebadot Hussain in the 46th over.

Then two sixes off Mahmudullah in the 49th over brought the equation down to 20 from the final six balls. The wily Mustafizur was able to defend that after conceding two fours and a six. India’s top-order struggled again with Shikhar Dhawan and Virat Kohli, who came out to open in Rohit’s absence, falling cheaply.

While Kohli played an attempted pull on to his stumps with the ball not bouncing as per his expectations, Dhawan fell to a snorter from Mustafzur Rahman. Both Washington Sundar (11 off 19) and K L Rahul (14 of 28) fell to poor shot selection.