Dhoni praises Bangladesh after 79-run loss in first ODI

Humiliated by Bangladesh in the first cricket one-dayer of the three-match series, India captain Mahendra Singh dhoni today said the hosts were the better side on the day as they played "some really good cricket
as a unit".

High-flying India was brought down to earth by a spirited Bangladesh who pulled off an upset 79- run victory in the first ODI dayer to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series. Bangladesh outsmarted India in all departments of the game and extracted a sweet revenge for their their quarterfinal loss at the hands of the same opponents in the World Cup earlier this year.

Chasing an imposing 308 for win, the Indians made a steady start before losing wickets at heap to be bundled out for 228 with four overs to spare. "Yes it was disappointing," Dhoni said about the loss.

"But Bangladesh played some really good cricket as a team. Right from the first ball they took our bowlers on. The rain break helped us. It looked like they would score more than 330 but we restricted them to 300, but our batting didn't turn up the way we wanted it to."

The Indian skipper didn't hide his disappointment over the performance of his pace department today. "The spinners bowled well, Raina's contribution was important, but disappointed with the way the fast bowlers bowled. The Bangladesh batsmen played the fast bowlers well," Dhoni said.

Dhoni also praised the performance of Bangladesh's four- pronged pace attack.

"What I am was particularly impressed with how subtly they changed their pace. They didn't bowl 140 and then 110, but took it down marginally. They did well in the World Cup because of their fast bowlers so we were not surprised they relied on fast bowlers tonight."

Delighted with the convincing victory, Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza said he can't ask for anything more from his teammates today.

He also lauded the stellar performance of young left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman who picked up five wickets on his debut.

"I can't ask for more. Mustafizur was not a surprise for us. We know he can destroy any batsman. It was a brilliant start from Tamim and Soumya. We lost a bit of momentum with the rain, but Rahman and Shakib did it for us. Yes it was a bit of a risk to play four quicks, but I trusted my boys," he said. "Maybe we were 15-20 short, but 300 is a big ask for anybody." 

Man-of-the-match Mustafizur said he was eager to come up with an impressive show against India today.

"I wanted to perform well on debut," said Mustafizur. "I know only a few have taken five on debut, but all I wanted was to do well against India."