As the captain of the ship, Rohit Sharma decided to go down fighting as he walked out at no.9 with tape over his glove after he was injured during fielding and taken to hospital. In a run chase that was almost out of the grasp after the wickets of Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel, Rohit kept Bangladesh fans nervous with a splendid show of power-hitting. But it wasn’t enough as Mustafizur Rahman kept his calm and defended six runs off the final delivery to help Bangladesh create history with five-run win and take an unassailable 2-0 lead in the three-match series.
The run chase of 272 did not get off to a good start. Virat Kohli (5) came out to open but dragged one to his stumps and got bowled by pacer Ebadot Hossain. Shikhar Dhawan's (8) poor run continued as well and he became Mustafizur's first victim of the day. Promoted up the order, Washington Sundar failed to make the most of chance and lost his wicket to experienced Shakib Al Hasan. India were 39/3 after 10 overs.
The lone warrior of previous game KL Rahul (14) could not cope up with the pressure and played an unnecessary shot across the line to get trapped in front of the wickets. Then Iyer who came out to bat at no.3 stitched a crucial partnership to get India back in the game. While Iyer took up the anchor role, Patel batted more positively, taking the attack to the opposition whenever the opportunity presented itself.
Once again, Mehidy Hasan Miraz came to the rescue and got the wicket of set batter Shreyas in the 35th over. Iyer scored 82 runs from 102 deliveries including six fours and three sixes. He shared a 107-run partnership for the fifth wicket with Patel. After Iyer's wicket, Ebadot got back into the attack and got the better of the southpaw with a short of the length delivery to derail India's run chase. Axar scored a run-a-ball 56 which had two fours and three sixes.
Deepak Chahar and Shardul Thakur took their time in the middle as the required run rate climbed up. However, both Thakur (7) and Chahar (11) could not do much damage with the bat against a charged up Bangladesh bowling lineup. Rohit walked out to bat at no.9 and made an impact when India needed to deal with fours and sixes. He started off by hitting Rohit for two sixes and one four against Ebadot in the 47th over. On the other end, Mohammed Siraj could not even manage a single in the 48th over against Mustafizur which made the situation tough for Rohit. 40 runs were needed in the last two overs and Rohit scored 17 off the 20 runs (including three wides) in the penultimate over against Mahmudullah.
In the final over, Rohit hit two fours and one six off the left-arm pacer. But six runs were needed off the last ball and Mustafizur held his nerve to bowl one in the block hole. All Rohit could do was keep it out as India lost the match by a small margin of five runs. Rohit remained unbeaten for 51 runs from 28 deliveries. His brave knock was studded with three fours and five sixes.
Earlier, Das won the toss and opted to bat first. Siraj got rid of both openers Anamul Haque (11) and Das (7) with the new ball. Umran Malik troubled Najmul Hossain Shanto with his raw pace and got his wicket in the 14th over. It triggered a batting collapse as Sundar got rid of Shakib (8), wicketkeeper-batter Mushfiqur Rahim (12) and Afif Hossain (0) quickly. All of a sudden, Bangladesh found themselves struggling at 69/6.
Mahmudullah and star of first ODI Mehidy stabilised the innings. India had an early chance to dismiss Mahmudullah and bundle out Bangladesh early but Malik misjudged the catch. The two batters took the game deep and waited for the last 10 overs to accelerate. After 40 overs, Bangladesh's score read 169/6. They crossed the 200-run mark in the 45th over.
In the last five overs they went berserk. Mahmudullah could not stay till the end and became Malik's victim in the 47th over. He scored 77 runs from 96 deliveries including seven fours. The two shared a 148-run partnership, highest for the seventh wicket against India in the format. The wicket of Mahmudullah did not have a major impact. Nasum Ahmed played a cameo of 11-ball 18 whereas Mehidy went on a boundary-hitting spree. In the last over, he got to his maiden ODI century from 83 deliveries as Bangladesh posted 271/7. Mehidy became the second batter in ODIs to score a hundred at no.8 position and rescued Bangladesh from 69/6.
