Mushfiqur-Mahmudullah turn things around to seal a historic win against India
Chasing 149, Bangladesh reached the target with three balls remaining as Mushfiqur scored an unbeaten 60 and Soumya scored 39.
Mushfiqur Rahim knocked off the ghosts of 2016 Bangalore as Bangladesh defeated India in the first T20I at Delhi by seven wickets on Sunday.
It was a fantastic knock under pressure from the right-handed batsman as he scored an unbeaten innings of 60 from 43 balls to help the Tigers win their first T20I ever against India.
Poetic Justice
It was poetic justice as the two players - Mushfiqur and Mahmudullah Riyad - who failed to win Bangladesh their T20I World Cup match in Bangalore were there in the end as Mahmudullah hit the winning runs with three balls to spare.
Mahmudullah remained not out on 15 as Bangladesh chased down the required target of 149 runs and eventually ended on 154-3 after 19.3 overs.
This was a massive win for a side that had lost two of their best players - Tamim Iqbal and Shakib Al Hasan - leading up to the tour and had their backs against the wall.
The turning points
The big turning point in the match came in the 19th over with 22 runs required off the last 12 balls and Mushfiqur managed to score four boundaries in the last four balls of the Khaleel Ahmed over to bring the equation down to a simple four runs off the last over.
Things could have gone India's way though as in the 18th over, Mushfiqur mishit a Yuzvendra Chahal ball to deep-midwicket but the stationed fielder, Krunal Pandya dropped it and the ball went to the boundary instead.
Efficient Effort
In the end, it was a more professional and efficient performance by a side that were expected to be brushed aside by an Indian team that were buoyed by a dominant series win against the Proteas at home.
There were important contributions from debutant Mohammad Naim (26 off 28 balls) who opened the innings along with Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar, who scored 39 off 35 balls to get Bangladesh off to a solid start.
Smart captaincy and bowling
But the main groundwork for the victory was laid by the bowlers after Mahmudullah won the toss and decided to bowl as the bowlers and fielders kept the Indian batsmen at bay and got regular wickets.
The spinners, especially leg-spinner Aminul Islam was brilliant as he took 2-22 in his three overs and off-spinner Afif Hossain was very economical and took 1-11 off his three overs.
The opening fast bowlers Shafiul Islam (2-36 off four overs) and Al-Amin (27 off four overs) Hossain were also very intelligent with their pace changes and took full advantage of a surface that had a bit of grip and variable bounce.
All the Indian batsmen had a hard time settling in with Mahmudullah making smart bowling changes and some of the new faces kept an Indian batting line-up missing their kingpin Virat Kohli quiet.
Difficult conditions
There was plenty of talk leading upto the match about how polluted the air in Delhi was and how difficult it was to breathe and play in the Delhi air.
The Bangladesh team were seen wearing air-masks to deal with the air as it caused itchiness in eyes and there was also a worry of the batsmen having trouble viewing the ball.
But luckily, the air got easier to breathe in on the day of the match but the Indian cricket board will certainly have to rethink playing international matches under such poor conditions in the future.
The stats that matter
This was the ninth T20I between Bangladesh and India, and previously Bangladesh had lost all of them.
Since the 2016 T20 World Cup, Bangladesh had won nine and lost 18 T20Is, this being their ninth.
This was Bangladesh's fifth T20I victory away from home in the last two years, where the Tigers have lost seven out of 12 matches.
Also, this was the 1000th T20I in history and Bangladesh will be happy to have made it a memorable one.