Cricket Highlights, 19 Mar: Bangladesh vs Ireland (1st ODI)

Bangladesh vs Ireland (1st ODI)

Host Bangladesh won by a record margin of runs in the record-building match at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium on Saturday. The Tigers scored 338/8 in the first match of the three-match ODI series against Ireland and secured victory by 183 runs. In terms of runs, this is Bangladesh’s record for winning by the highest margin of runs.

The previous record was 169 against Zimbabwe. Bangladesh set that record in 2020 at this same venue. However, the Tigers set a new milestone by breaking their records yesterday.

After losing the toss and going down to bat first, Bangladesh amassed a huge score of 338 runs for the loss of 8 wickets in the scheduled 50 overs courtesy of the brilliant innings by Shakib Al Hasan (93), Towhid Hridoy (92), and Mushfiqur Rahim (44).

Chasing this mammoth total, the hosts bowled out the Irish for 155 runs in 30.5 overs with the brilliant bowling skills of pacer Ebadot Hossain, Taskin Ahmed, left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed, and Shakib.

Ireland got off to a flying start coming down to chase a big target of 339 runs. They picked up 60 runs in 11 overs without losing any wickets. But then there arose a problem. The Irish were seemingly knocked out of the match by losing 5 wickets within just 16 runs.

All-rounder Shakib gave the team the first breakthrough. Opener Stephen Doheny (34) became his victim. Then pacer Ebadot Hossain struck twice. Paul Stirling (22) and Harry Tector (3) returned to the dressing room being his victims.

Then another pacer Taskin Ahmed hit the Ireland camp. Irish captain Andrew Balbirnie (5) and Lorcan Tucker (6) became his pair of victims.

Curtis Campher (16) was trapped lbw off left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed. Nasum sent Gareth Delany (1) back to the pavilion in the same way as Campher. Nasum also took the wicket of Andy McBrine as the eighth batsman.

And Ebadot Hossain returned Mark Adair (13) as the ninth batsman. As he departed, the visitors lost the 9th wicket scoring 144 runs in 29 overs. But at the other end of the wicket, spinner George Dockrell was fighting alone for the Irish. He scored the team-highest 45 off 47 balls.

However, Ebadot confirmed the victory of the team by sending Dockrell to the dressing room as the last batsman. Mushfiqur was very active behind the wicket yesterday. He took 5 catches. Ebadot took the highest number of 4 wickets for Bangladesh with 42 runs in 6.5 overs. Apart from this, Nasum took 3 wickets, Taskin 2, and Shakib took 1 wicket.

Earlier, Bangladesh lost the toss and went to bat, they lost 8 wickets to put up 338 runs on the board. Captain Tamim Iqbal (3) returned with a catch in the team’s 15 runs. Another opener Liton Das returned to the dressing room scoring 26 runs. Bangladesh lost 3 wickets for 81 runs when Najmul Hossain Shanto scored 25 runs off 34 balls and became a victim of McBrine.

The next story is of Shakib and the anointed Towhid Hridoy. For the fourth wicket, the duo put on 135 runs off 125 balls. Shakib picked up his fifty off 65 balls. Then Shakib missed the century for only 7 runs. He was dismissed after trying to chase a ball well outside the off stump by Graham Hume. The world’s best all-rounder played an inning of 93 runs off 89 balls, hitting 9 boundaries.

On the other hand, Towhid Hridoy scored fifty on his debut as the third Bangladeshi. He also missed the century. Being Bowled by Graham Hume, his innings ended with 8 fours and 2 sixes, he played an inning of 92 runs off 85 balls. Mushfiqur also played an effective inning of 44 runs off 26 balls, with 3 fours and 3 sixes.

However, Towhid Hridoy was selected as the player of the match after playing an adventurous inning of 92 runs in the debut match. On the other hand, Graham Hume scalped the maximum number of 4 wickets for Ireland. Andy McBrine, Curtis Campher, and Mark Adair took 1 wicket each for the visitors.

Bangladesh vs Ireland Scoreboard

Bangladesh – 338/8 (50.0)

Ireland – 155/10 (30.5)

Result – Bangladesh won by 183 runs

Player of the match – Towhid Hridoy

Towhid-Hridoy

Bangladesh vs Ireland Playing Xis