Bangladesh vs New Zealand, 5th ODI at Dhaka, Oct 17 2010 - Ball by Ball Commentary

A truly bizarre game of one-day cricket. Bangladesh were distinctly average with the bat, and New Zealand were favourites at the halfway stage. But whatever Bangladesh could do badly New Zealand could do worse with an astonishing top-order collapse that saw the top five score a combined grand total of 12 runs between them. At 20 for 5 it appeared all over, but Vettori and Elliott dragged them out of the quagmire and even briefly into a relatively comfortable position. But then New Zealand consistently lost wickets after appearing to have the situation under control, until Mills was left with 30 to get with only Bennett for company. Mills threatened to pull off the heist with some clean striking but fell agonisingly short as Bangladesh made history for the second time in 3 days

But full credit must go to a side that was expected by all and sundry to be on the end of a 5-0 thrashing at the beginning of the series, only to completely turn the tables on those predictions and end up comprehensively demolishing their opposition by the resounding scoreline of 4-0. Often capable of putting together a decent performance, the Bangladeshis finally stitched them all together into one series rather than showing the occasional flash of brilliance. They consistently and convincingly outplayed their opposition in every department of the game, and won all the key moments.

Meanwhile the New Zealanders can do little but look back on this series as an astoundingly awful set of performances. Their top order had the backbone of a twig and saved their worst performance for last when chasing the lowest target. The bowlers were adequate without running through the opposition as they would have expected to and had done so in the past.

Presentation Ceremony: 11 dignitaries crowd the presentation area to its fullest extent. Aleem Dar receives an award for being the ICC Umpire of the Year, Kyle Mills for best six, and Grant Elliott for fastest fifty.

Man of the Match is Rubel Hossain with 4 for 25 from his 10 overs, and is happy: 'I am feeling good, the first time I have received the Man of the Match award. Working on my line and length'.

Top wicket-taker in the series is awarded to Shakib al Hasan, who also scoops the award for top run-scorer in the series. Excellent effort from Shakib who has reinforced his position at the top of the ICC's allrounder rankings. Unsurprisingly Shakib is also declared Man of the Series.

Shakib: 'I think we played really well this series, our boys came hard at the New Zealand side and we had a really good series. The wicket wasn't that great today and our batsmen didn't get the big scores today but our bowlers did really well'.

Daniel Vettori: 'A dreadful series, but Bangladesh and Shakib were outstanding. Batting has been symptomatic of our performances in the series, but we have enjoyed playing for this crowd. India are one of the best teams in the world, so hopefully we can regroup there.'

Shakib receives the series trophy from the BCB president Mustafa Kamal. His ecstatic teammates savour their first series success with delightful enthusiasm as they pose for the photo, and no one can begrudge them their success as they were the better side by an absolute mile.

That concludes our coverage of this series. We do hope you have enjoyed it, I certainly have and it has been a pleasure to commentate for you for this series. Do pop over to our colleagues at Potchefstroom where South Africa are taking on a battling Zimbabwe. From the rest of the staff at ESPNcricinfo and on behalf of today's scorer Sanjay Murari, this is Avi Singh signing off, and wishing you well. Ta ta.

Rubel with the all-important last over

8 required from the final over. Can Mills engineer a remarkable victory??

Shafiul comes on

Mills will need to launch a couple more lusty blows to make this close, Rubel back to prevent that happening