Dhaka

A courageous knock from skipper Rohit Sharma was not enough for India to salvage a comeback in the ongoing ODI series as Bangladesh gained an unassailable 2-0 lead.

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India needed 20 runs in the final over to even the honours with Sharma on strike. The responsibility to deliver the last six deliveries lay on the shoulders of Bangladesh's trusted death-over specialist Mustafizur Rahman. While the left-arm pacer was carted for three boundaries, he managed to hold his own as Bangladesh pulled off a historic five-run victory.

However, the match may not have gone that deep if it wasn't for Sharma's spirited call to return to the middle despite being in pain. Having sat down the majority of the match after suffering a split webbing during Bangladesh's inning, Sharma marched out when the Indian scoreboard wore a sorry look at 207 for seven. 

It was from there that Sharma launched a rearguard action and managed to make a game out of nothing. The grimaces on Sharma's face after the big shots gave away that he was in pain, however, he 

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Batting first, Bangladesh were off to the worst possible start as they lost six wickets in under 19 overs with only 69 runs on board. Just when it looked like the Bangla Tigers will fold rather meekly, Mahmuduulah and previous match hero Mehidy Hasan Miraz joined forces. 

Together, the duo managed to stitch a 148-runs partnership in 165 balls with Miraz hitting a breezy century in 83 deliveries. Meanwhile, Mahmudullah signed off after playing a brilliant anchor inning of 77 runs. 

In the end, Bangladesh ended up more than a competitive total of 271 on board. On a sluggish Sher-e-Bangla pitch, anything above 250 would have taken proper application from the batters.

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However, much like the first ODI, Indian batters capitulated, bar Shreyas Iyer and Axar Patel. The former played another masterful (82 off 102 balls) knock while Patel (56 off 56) stuck by as an ideal foil.

When it appeared that India were in cruise control and will reach the victory shores, Mehidy Hasan Miraz struck again and managed to send Iyer back to the hut. from there, it was always going to be difficult for India to mount a comeback as asking rate continued to creep up. 

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Reflecting upon the match, Sharma in the post-match presentation admitted India had allowed the hosts to come back into the game. 

"We allowed Bangladesh to get back into the game but the start was great, the middle overs and backend is hurting us, something that we need to realize quickly, time is not in our hands, not taking anything away from Mehidy and Mahmudullah, it was a brilliant partnership."

This was Bangladesh's second bilateral ODI series victory against India . The first came in 2015 when MS Dhoni's men were beaten by a 2-1 margin. 

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