Pakistan showed resilience in the last ball thriller, winning by five wickets over Bangladesh and sweeping the T20 series 3-0 as the Tigers suffered their eighth consecutive defeat in the format.
Chasing a target of 125 for victory, Pakistan's top order reached 117 for two in 19 overs before slowing down in the last over after seeing Mahmudullah's triple strike at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium on Monday.
Mahmudullah saved 6 runs in the last over and brought himself through Sarfaraz Ahmed (6) and Haider Ali (54). Iftikhar Ahmed started 90m six and the equation was raised to 2 for the same number of deliveries.
Mahmudullah took the next ball to take revenge and defeated Pakistan by 123 runs for five wickets. The game started when Mohammad Nawaz (4) moved and Mahmudullah dropped his next ball as the new batsmen hit the ball stumps at the last minute.
Mahmudullah and his men gave up the demand for wickets as the batsmen did not give a shot, which he said at the end - he drove over the cover to ensure victory.
Mohammad Rizwan (40) and Haider (45) put on 51 for the third wicket after opener Babar Azam (19) was dismissed by leg-break bowler Aminul Islam. Batsmen to free their weapons.
Debuting pacer Shahidul Islam picked up his first wicket when Rizwan made a good length delivery short before the death over to give hope to the Bangladeshi fans.
Earlier, Bangladesh batsmen failed to set competitive goals again. Still looking for an effective combination in their batting line-up, the hosts decided to bat and scored 124 for seven.
Opener Nazmul Hossain Shant (5) started with a boundary but Shahnawaz Dahani (1-24) was bowled before Shamim Hossain (22) added 30 runs for the second wicket with top scorer Mohammad Naeem (48 off 50 balls).
Pakistani leg-breaker Usman Qadir (2-35) sent packing to Shamim after Pokhraj's draw, but Afif Hossain scored another 43 runs with Naeem in the counter-attack.
As the boundary dried up, the pressure on the batsmen increased as Afif hit two sixes in the midwicket and took another drop from Usman for a comfortable catch in the short fine leg.
Wasim dismissed Shant shortly after, the home side scored 111 for five at the time of his death.
Captain and Mahmudullah (13) and Nurul Hasan died with two balls to spare after Bangladesh struggled to reach 120 as Qadir and Wasim were suffocated to score only 28 runs in the last four overs.
Bangladesh have lost their previous two matches due to batting failure and are trailing 2-0 in the series. There will be two Tests after the series.
At the end of the game, Azam said, "The players are responsible for the way everyone has tried. You can always improve. Our middle order has won the match for us as our fielding has improved.
"Whatever mistake we make, we want to make sure it doesn't happen again in the upcoming match. We want to take this momentum to the Test match. I want to thank the fans here."
Man of the Series, Mohammad Rizwan says: “When you play for the country, you are obviously happy and you can't put it into words. The pitch was a tough one. And whenever you play away, you get to play on different pitches.
"But we try to stick to our process. In the last one year, I have gained some momentum in my batting and keeping. I want to thank the fans, it looks like we are playing in Pakistan.
Man-of-the-match Haider Ali said: "The pitch was tough. Brother Riji supported me and said we wanted to play till the end. It was close to the end but fortunately, we ended up on the winning team.
In the post-match ceremony, Mahmudullah said, “The batsmen of the two teams have fought. You need to spend some time at the crease before you can capitalize. I think Naeem batted well. [In the last over] I really appreciate the way Taskin came back from his bowling hand injury. Showed great character. "
There will be two Tests after the T20 series, the first of which will start on November 26 in Chittagong. The second five-day match will start from December 4 in Dhaka.
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