The match started an hour late due the consistent rain. After the obstacles were abated, Bangladesh won the toss and elected to bowl fast. It was a crucial toss to win because of forecast conditions.
Ireland didn’t have a great start, they could only score 31 runs in first 10 overs for the loss of two wickets. Paul Stirling and Stephen Doherty, both openers were dismissed by 23 years old Hasan Mahmud.
However, captain Andrew Balbirnie decided to stich up the innings before the later batters can provide some momentum. He built an match changing partnership of 98 runs with Harry Tector.
Tector was standout batter for Ireland, he scored 140 off 112 balls and punished everything short, wide or full on leg. He got better of Shoriful Islam and Shakib Al Hassan who went wicketless after a long time.
Once the Balbirnie-Tector partnership was broken by Shoriful Isalam, Bangladesh sneaked back in the game with back to back two more wickets in space of 7 overs, leaving Ireland 5 for 167 by the end of 31st over.
The good thing for Ireland was that Irish batters kept their intent in attacking mode, Harry Tector brought his century in 93 balls with the help of 6 fours and 6 sixes as Ireland crossed the 200 runs mark.
The most important passage of the game for Ireland was the partnership between Harry Tector and George Dockrell, both brought 100 runs partnership in just 59 balls as Dockrell completed his half century in just 31 balls.
After Tector was dismissed by Ebadot Hossain, Dockrell and Adair added 37 runs in the last 3 overs, helping Ireland post 319 runs on board.
A Decisive Chase By Bangladesh
Ireland would have felt happy that they scored 319 after the kind of start they had but probably they left 20 runs on this pitch. As match moved on, it got better and better.
Najmul Hossain Shanto was just phenomenal with 93 balls 117 runs, after Ireland had lost 2 wickets for 40 runs. Shanto shared a 60 runs partnership with Shakib Al Hassan then a 130 runs partnership with Towhid Hridoy which was definitely a match winning one.
Hridoy scored 68 off 58 balls, as Bangladesh kept moving ahead with a runrate of above 6 runs per over. Mushfiqur Rahim (36 off 28 balls) and Mehidy Hasan Miraz (19 off 12 balls) gave the much needed impetus in last overs to brought everything in winning distance.
They did lost a few wickets in the last few overs but they were too ahead in terms of runs needed for win, the game went to the last over and finished when 3 balls were left in the game.