Tamim pleased with win after losing series

BAN 246 (48.5)

ENG 196 (43.1)

Bangladesh won by 50 runs

Bangladesh ODI skipper Tamim Iqbal said on Monday that he is happy to end the three-match ODI series on a high against England. The hosts managed to avoid the embarrassment of getting whitewashed at their own den in nine years after earning a 50-run win over the visitors at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Monday.

Last time Bangladesh were whitewashed away at home was way back in 2014 when Sri Lanka beat them by a 3-0 margin. However, Bangladesh failed to save their unbeaten run in the ODI format at home that began since their series loss to England in 2016 as they won seven successive series at their own backyard.

"I think I've said this many times that I take pride in our ODI team, especially when we are playing at home. Happy that we finished well but disappointed that we lost the series," Tamim told reporters after the third ODI against England.

"We always say small things matter. In the first game we were 104 for 3 and we ended up scoring 209. Even today we should've scored 270 or 280 from the position we were in. But we didn't finish well. There are lot of things to work on and get better at. But, yeah, very happy with the win," he said.

"I thought it wasn't a great target we set because we were in a position to score 270-280. We lost a couple of wickets in the middle and that put us back. Whatever you have on the board, you got to go and fight for it. We kept on fighting for it. Luckily, we got a few wickets back to back, and that helped us. At some point in the evening, the ball started to spin a little and that also helped us. Thank God, there wasn't a big partnership because at the end there was dew and the ball stopped spinning. I thought it was becoming easy for batting but we picked up seven or eight wickets by then. So we were lucky there," he said adding that Shakib Al Hasan was fantastic on the field to help them earn the consolation win.

Shakib struck the highest score of the match - 75 off 71 balls - and later the left-arm spinner finished with 4-35 in his 10 overs to become only the 14th bowler in cricket history to take 300 wickets in the ODI format. "Today's performance was amazing (Shakib). And overall, he has done some amazing stuff for us. I always say that any team will be blessed to have a player like him," said Tamim.

"Honestly, the wicket didn't have that much turn but the way he bowled was something really really brilliant. That also gave confidence to Taijul who didn't start so well. He (Shakib) was talking to him (Taijul). Yeah, I thought it was a fantastic effort from him.

"I think he (Shakib) is mentally very strong. Most of the times you will see when he is under pressure he will come with similar performances. In the past he has done it. He has very good skills as well to back it. Not many people are as blessed as him who bowls 10 overs and bats the way he bats. I think, he utilizes both of them very well."

Tamim added that he is not too worried that Liton Kumar Das, Mehedy Hasan or Afif Hossain failed to deliver in the series. "That's part of life. Not everyone will score big in every series," said Tamim. "I think Litton has been brilliant for almost two years, he has been performing in all three formats. He can have one or two off series. The same goes for Miraz, the same goes for others. But the important thing is, when they are not scoring somebody else has to step up. That's very important. People can have bad series and that's completely fine."

Meanwhile, England skipper Jos Buttler admitted that the target of 247 should have been chased down. England were in a decent position at 104/3 at one stage before collapsing for 196. However, Buttler was still pleased with the way his side performed throughout the series in conditions that are not too familiar. "I think we got off to a really good start in the chase as well and then lost three wickets for one run, I think, so that was a big turning point in the match," Buttler said. "But even from that point, a couple of good partnerships would have seen us home.

"I think we played some really good cricket throughout the series. And I've spoken a lot about these being great conditions for us to challenge ourselves in. These are probably the conditions that we would find the hardest as a team, so to win the series, Bangladesh are a tough side to beat in their own conditions. Now there's plenty to learn, things that we've done well and areas that we can also improve."

England handed young Rehan Ahmed a debut today and even though Adil Rashid was magnificent, picking up two wickets for just 21 runs in five overs, Buttler opted to bowl out Rehan, who eventually conceded 62 in his quota of 10 overs. "No regrets at all," Buttler said on the call to bowl out Rehan ahead of Rashid. "There was a great opportunity for Rehan to bowl ten overs today. And we know what a class performer Adil is and I thought it just made sense to give Rehan the opportunity to bowl to good players, who could put him under a bit of pressure which is great, and that's what you want to do, give him an opportunity to influence the game as much as he could."

Shakib Al Hasan | Player of the Match: We've been very good at home in the last 5-7 years. Unfortunately we lost this series but I think we showed a lot of character today so we can take credit from it. We thought we were 20-30 runs short, the situation we were in, we could have scored more. Our bowlers spoke about stepping up and getting the job done. Luckily they did the job for us today. We expect our top order players to score 100s and not 50s so I guess that's an area we can improve on.

Adil Rashid | Player of the Series: It felt good, lot of credit goes to our bowlers. There's something special about Rehan Ahmed, as time goes on he'll develop his game. You adjust whenever you play. I tried to have a gameplan and execute it.