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SYLHET – Ireland were beaten by ten wickets in the final ODI in Sylhet as Bangladesh won the three-match series 2-0.
The Bangladesh fast bowlers ripped through the Irish batting lineup after Andrew Balbirnie won the toss and opted to bat. Hasan Mahmud took 5-32 as Ireland were bowled out for 101 inside 30 overs.

Litton Das and Tamim Iqbal then thrashed Bangladesh to a huge victory with 37 overs to spare, securing a record victory margin in men’s ODIs for Bangladesh – their highest in terms of wickets and second-highest in terms of balls remaining.

With Ireland unchanged from the rain-curtailed second ODI, Stephen Doheny and Paul Stirling were put under pressure right from ball one. Mahmud beat Doheny’s bat twice in his opening over which started with five consecutive dots. Taskin Ahmed sustained the pressure from the other end, closing off the scoring options for the Ireland openers.

After breaking free with an inside-edged four to the square leg boundary off the first ball of the fifth, Doheny became Mahmud’s first victim. Prodding away from his body, he nicked a length ball just outside off stump, the catch carrying low to the keeper.

Stirling fell to Mahmud next, pinned in front lbw, with Harry Tector sent back in the same over also lbw. At first glance, Tector looked to have got a slight inside edge on trying to defend a ball which kept slightly low, but on review, Bangladesh were vindicated with the ball hitting the pad first followed by three reds.

Balbirnie was dismissed by Taskin four balls later, Ireland now having lost 14-4, before Curtis Campher and Lorcan Tucker put together a promising partnership. Tucker hit three fours off one Edabot Hossain over to bring up Ireland’s fifty and get the scoreboard moving again, including a punchy drive down the ground.

But, as the partnership neared a half-century, Edabot struck twice in as many balls to peg Ireland’s rebuilding effort back. Tucker was beaten by some late swing to fall lbw before George Dockrell’s off stump was cartwheeled from his first ball in the middle. Edabot nearly completed the hat-trick, Campher getting a thick inside-edge which narrowly avoided his stumps off the first delivery of Edabot’s following over.

Graham Hume was the final wicket to fall, trapped lbw and given out on review to give Mahmud his five-for and ten wickets in the series.

With the ball in hand and looking to take some positives out of the series, Mark Adair challenged the Bangladesh openers first up, beating Tamim’s outside edge with his first delivery.

The boundaries soon began to flow, however. Two fours came off Hume’s first over and three from Adair’s second. As the runs left for Bangladesh to get rapidly ticked down, there were only a couple of half-chances for Ireland to halt their progress.

Tector couldn’t cling on to a sharp diving chance off Das at point. It would have been a spectacular piece of fielding if it had stuck but he could only deflect it off his left hand into the deep. Campher managed to find some swing at the end of the powerplay that troubled Tamim’s pads in the dying stages of the game.

A couple of boundaries off Matthew Humphreys, playing his second ODI, gave Das a half-century before Tamim finished the game off with a single off the first ball of the 14th over.

Ireland will look to come back strong after a tough ODI series in the first of three T20Is on Monday.

MATCH SUMMARY

Bangladesh v Ireland, 3rd ODI, Sylhet International Cricket Stadium, Sylhet, 23 March 2023

Ireland 101 (28.1 overs; Curtis Campher 36, Lorcan Tucker 28, Hasan Mahmud 5-32)
Bangladesh 102-0 (13.1 overs; Litton Das 50, Tamim Iqbal 41)

Bangladesh won by 10 wickets

See full scorecard


Wisden
Ireland’s attention now turns to the T20I series
No
Connaught