DHAKA: Bangladesh pace sensation Nahid Rana claimed his first five-wicket haul in One-day Internationals to lead his team to a crushing eight-wicket win over Pakistan in their opening match here at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Wednesday.

Right-armer Rana returned exceptional figures of 5-24 in seven overs to skittle out Pakistan for 114, which became the Green-shirts` lowestODItotalagainstBangladesh, surpassing their previous lowest of 161 during the 1999 World Cup match in Northampton where Bangladesh secured a famous 62-run victory.

Bangladesh in their reply overhauled the scanty total in 15.1 overs of the 50-over contest to take a 1-0 lead in the three-match series.

Despite the heavy loss in the series opener, Pakistan captain Shaheen Shah Afridi backed the youngsters to come good.

`I think we started well when Rana came. So I think he bowled really well. And yeah, the start we wanted, that was not achieved for the first game, but there are still two games, and as a team we`re ready for that,` left-arm pacer Shaheen said at the post-match presentation.

`I think when you [lose], there were a lot of points you want to men-tion, but I feel this is a young team and Pll back them till the end.

Bangladesh opener Tanzid Hasan hammered an unbeaten 67 off 42 balls and put on a second-wicket partnership of 82 with Najmul Hossain Shanto, who made 27, in a statement win.

Saif Hassan fell early for four, while Litton Das remained unbeaten on three with Tanzid.

Earlier, the 23-year-old Nahid playing his sixth ODI -laid the platform for victory with his outstanding spell in his seven overs to bowl out Pakistan for their lowest ODI total against Bangladesh.

The pacer ripped through Pakistan`s top order batting, becoming the first Bangladesh bowler to dismiss the opposition`s top five batters in an ODI innings.

Nahid removed Sahibzada Farhan (27), Shamyl Hussain (4), Maaz Sadagat (18), Mohammad Rizwan (10) and Salman Ali Agha (5) as Pakistan slumped to 69-5 in the 18th over.

The performance marked a breakthrough in Nahid`s brief ODI career since his debut in 2024. He had taken only five wickets in his first five matches before producing the five-wicket haul in his sixth appearance.

Nahid is now only the second Bangladesh bowler to take a fivewicket haul against Pakistan in ODIs after Mustafizur`s 5-75 during the 2019 World Cup.

He was ably supported by captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who took 3-29 with his off-spin. Senior quicksTaskin Ahmed and Mustafizur Rahman took one wicket each.

All-rounder Faheem Ashraf, batting at number eight, offered brief resistance with his 37 off 47 balls as he added 32 runs with last man Abrar Ahmed (zero not out) to help Pakistan cross the 100-mark before being dismissed by Mustafizur as the tourists were eventually bowled out in 30.4 overs.

`EXPOSED AGAINST GOOD BOWLING` Mike Hesson, Pakistan`s whiteball coach, admitted that the touring batters were exposed against Bangladesh`s good bowling in the series opener.

`It`s a pretty disappointing batting performance,` Hesson said after the match. `I don`t think there`s any shying away from that. It wasn`t just the youngsters, we were exposed against some good bowling and we went into our shell a little bit, and we have to turn things around really quickly.

Hesson, who had criticised the slow, turning wickets Bangladesh prepared for a T20 series against Pakistan`s last July, conceded there was nothing wrong this time around.

`The wicket was fine,` the New Zealander said. `It played pretty well. Rana was exceptional. Until he came into the game, we were ticking along okay, and he changed the game. He bowled into the wicket, created some variation and bounce, which he`s allowed to do when he`s bowling at that pace.

`And we didn`t respond as well as we needed to. So all credit to him.

Four Pakistan youngsters Abdul Samad, Maaz Sadagat, Sahibzada Farhan and Shamyl Hussain made their ODI debut on Wednesday but failed to impress.However, Hesson defended the young players, as well as the decision to select them.

`[These] youngsters have got to learn. It wasn`t just the youngsters [who struggled]. All of us need to stand up and put in a better performance with the bat and we`re certainly going to try and do that in the coming games,` the coach stated.

-Agencies