Mushfiqur Rahim slams his 49th ODI half-century: Key stats
Mushfiqur Rahim played a match-winning knock for Bangladesh in the 1st ODI against Sri Lanka at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium, Chattogram. Rahim smashed an unbeaten 73, helping the hosts chase down 256. He added a century-plus stand with centurion Najmul Hossain Shanto after Bangladesh were down to 92/4. The duo returned unbeaten, guiding Bangladesh to a six-wicket win in 44.4 overs.
How did the match pan out?
SL started well as openers Pathum Nissanka and Avishka Fernando shared a 71-run stand. They lost four wickets before reaching 150. While Janith Liyanage held one end, the rest departed in quick succession. Tanzim Hasan Sakib, Shoriful Islam, and Taskin Ahmed took three wickets as SL perished for 255. Bangladesh lost four quick wickets, but Shanto and Rahim got them over the line.
Rahim returns unbeaten on 73
Rahim joined Shanto in the middle after Bangladesh lost Litton Das, Soumya Sarkar, Towhid Hridoy, and Mahmudullah with just 92 runs on the board. The duo built the chase brick-by-brick and continued to rotate the strike. While Shanto slammed a ton, Rahim ended up scoring 73* of 84 balls, a knock laced with 8 fours. It was his 49th ODI fifty.
Rahim races past 7,700 ODI runs
Rahim has been Bangladesh's mainstay middle-order batter in ODI cricket. He made his ODI debut in August 2006, against Zimbabwe in Harare. In 269 ODIs, the right-handed batter has racked up 7,730 runs at an average of 36.80. The tally includes 58 fifty-plus scores (nine tons). Rahim is only behind Tamim Iqbal (8,357) in terms of ODI runs for Bangladesh.
Over 1,100 ODI runs against SL
Mushfiqur remains the only Bangladesh batter with over 1,000 runs against Sri Lanka in ODI cricket. He has now raced past 1,100 ODI runs (1,145) against the Lankan side. In Chattogram, Rahim slammed his sixth half-century against them in the format.
