Bangladesh erupt in celebrations

Cricket fans across Bangladesh have gone wild to celebrate their first-ever series win against India.

People took out victory parades at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur moments after the spectacular win.

Fireworks lit up the night sky after the hosts easily won the second one-day international (ODI) by six wickets under Duckworth-Lewis calculation.
Similar celebratory processions were also taken out by people in different parts of Dhaka and other cities and district towns.

Students of Dhaka University ran out of their residential halls in sheer joy shouting slogans. They took out parades in the campus as soon as Sabbir Rahman scored the winning run off Indian spinner Axar Patel.

The historic win has now given Bangladesh an unbeatable 2-0 lead.
Thousands of university students thronged the key intersections of Dhaka to revel in the ODI series win, which also saw Bangladesh qualify for the 2017 Champions Trophy.

Many students carried the Bangladesh flag as they danced and chanted slogans.
Student Pintu Ranjan said: “Bangladesh’s self-confidence led to the victory.” He hoped the hosts would be able to whitewash India.

Bidyut, a management department student, said: “This is an extraordinary day in our country’s history.”

“Bangladesh exceeded our expectations. They have proved they are not weak, not any more,” he added.

Fearless approach
Upbeat after handing out back-to- back defeats to India, Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has credited the success to his side’s “fearless approach” and acknowledged that the team did not expect to win by such big margins.

“It is one of the biggest achievements actually. I think the boys are really confident. Maybe we didn’t expect to win that way. But we were always going to play to win and fight till the last ball and obviously I know that if we play our best cricket, it will be competitive and we can win as well. I will say that a lot of luck was also involved,” said Mashrafe in the post-match conference here on Sunday.

The Bangladesh all-rounder expressed his satisfaction over the success but cautioned the team to maintain consistency.

“Look, consistency was our biggest problem. At the moment things are going well for us and I hope it will continue. In cricket, momentum is very important. Hopefully the boys will keep it up.

“There were a lot of challenges in the last 15 years but keeping this form is going to be a greater challenge for us. I think it’s a good pressure.”