Bangladesh celebrate Sachin's 100th 100

Mushfiqur Rahim walked the talk and he did it in style. A day after blatantly pointing out that India’s bowling attack was weaker than that of Sri Lanka and Pakistan, the Bangladesh skipper took Irfan Pathan and Praveen Kumar to the cleaners as the home side chased down a mammoth 290-run target with clinical efficiency to throw the Asia Cup wide open.

Mahmudullah hit the winning runs, dispatching a full toss from Ashok Dinda. However, it was Rahim who turned the game on its head by smashing back-to-back sixes off Pathan in the 48th over.

The hosts needed 33 from 18 balls when the left-armer stood at his run-up, but Rahim’s twin strikes made local fans delirious.

With 16 required off two overs, MS Dhoni turned to Kumar who promptly conceded a four and six off consecutive balls.

Bangladesh did lose Nasir Hossain (54), but there was no way the hosts were not going to score two off the last over.

One wouldn’t want to admit it, but facts are sacred. Picture this: Sachin Tendulkar’s first fifty came off 63 deliveries. His journey from 51 to 60 took 16 deliveries; the one from 61 to 70 consumed nine; his 80 came 13 balls later; the 90 after a further 20 — he played out a maiden over bowled by Mashrafe Mortaza — and the last 10 took another 14. He hit just four boundaries in this period and don’t forget that he was at the crease throughout the batting powerplay.

But once he got the voodoo off his back, he cracked a couple of boundaries before falling for 114. His last 14 runs took just nine deliveries. If not for Suresh Raina’s 38-ball 51 and Dhoni’s 11-ball 22, India would have had about 270 to defend.