Bangladesh made a happy-ending

Bangladesh made a happy-ending to an until-this-series sordid year at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.

Mahmudullah Riyad slogged a length ball from Solomon Mire to the midwicket boundary to complete his match-winning half-century in the face of his side's batting jittery as the Tigers' 'mission whitewash' was accomplished against Zimbabwe with a five-wicket victory in the low-scoring fifth and final ODI.As expected, the clean sweep of the five-match ODI series followed the 3-0 victory in the Test series against the southern African nation, who had no answer to Bangladesh's spin attack even in the last game as Shakib Al Hasan and Taijul, along with tyro leg-spinner Jubair Hossain, bundled them up only for 128 runs after choosing to bat.Taijul Islam however hogged the spotlight in the year's last international engagement as the left-arm spinner became the first bowler in history to claim a hattrick on debut and was adjudged player-of-the-match for his figures of 4-11. The 22-year-old from Natore became the fourth Bangladeshi to claim a treble after Shahadat Hossain, Abdur Razzak and Rubel Hossain.

There was an interesting similarity between Bangladesh's first win and last win in the series. Firstly, Taijul made a Bangladesh record by taking highest eight wickets in an innings in the first Test and then he finished with the world record hattrick in the last ODI. And secondly, on both the occasions, though the first one was a Test match, the Bangladesh top order faltered in chase of small totals, which however caused a concern for the team management.