'The loss is a lesson'

At the end of the day, both the team management and the fans will readily acclaim the 2-1 series victory. After all, none of the players had spoken of a series-win prior to the start of the tour.

However, one can't overlook the fact that the Tigers were presented with an opportunity to create something even more special yesterday. The Indians had their backs against the wall. They were clearly under pressure and this would have been the best possible time to complete a flawless victory.

Yes, India did score a total past 300. But with seven batsmen on a good batting track and an Indian attack that lacked confidence, the target was reachable.

After the match, Mashrafe Bin Mortaza did say that they had achieved far more than what they had expected, however, he did admit that the Tigers weren't at their best on the field yesterday.

"I think there was more pressure on the last match than before the series. Whenever we win one match, there are chants of a Banglawash and that does put a bit more pressure on the players.

"So yes, the body language wasn't at the top of the mark. We couldn't get breakthroughs, neither could we form partnerships. But we have to learn from these aspects. On the whole we weren't too far away, but we weren't at our best either," said Mashrafe.

While the bowlers won Bangladesh the first two matches, they had a rare failure yesterday. Despite the 300-plus score in the first match, it would be fair to say that the batsman could have done much better. None of them for instance converted their good starts into three figures, something that they had managed to do against Pakistan in the last series.

"There were many batsmen who couldn't score despite making starts. Yesterday everyone did mistakes. Right from batsman number two to number seven, there were scores of 25, 30 and 40. We needed a 60 or 80.

"Until the 35th over, we were ahead of India in terms of runs. But it was the wickets column that was a concern. That put us on the back-foot and it was a big mistake on our part. Hopefully we can learn from this and do better next time," explained Mashrafe.

Among the seniors, Mushfiqur Rahim is one player who had a disappointing run. When asked if there the wicketkeeper-batsman was going through a tough time Mashrafe said, "I don't think he is going through any trouble mentally. But maybe its difficult when you expect something from a player all the time. He is bound to go through a bad patch.

"If you ask me if I am concerned about his focus, I'll tell you that I am sometimes worried that he is over-focused. Sometimes it's good to stay away from cricket. There's no chance of him being less focused.  I think cricket dominates his life. He is an amazing batsman and he will come back," added Mashrafe.