With the captain's unconquered knock of 128 Tushar was the pick of the home team batsmen after his back-to-back half-centuries in the first game at Mirpur but his efforts were not enough to stop a 1-0 series defeat as the visitors won the first four-dayer by five wickets.

The home team made a disastrous start in the second innings when Mike Yardy made a bold declaration with the overnight score of 251-8 with the lead of 99 runs to test the nerve of the local batsmen on the final day.

Paceman Graham Onions caused early damage when he removed both openers Mehrab Hossain and Jahurul Islam in the second over with the scoreboard reading one. Mehrab edged to the gloves of Mathew Prior while Jahurul pulled Onions only to find Nick Compton who took a simple catch.

Tushar then joined Nasiruddin Faruque to initiate the rescue act but he was lucky enough before sharing a 127-run third wicket partnership. The effort of these two batsmen helped the home team to go for lunch without further damage and ultimately forced their opponents to accept a draw with 14 overs remaining of the day's play. Bangladesh A finished at 218-7 in 84 overs in their second essay with Dollar Mahmud not out on the other end.

The right-handed Tushar survived twice in an over of Onions when he was just on six as Tim Bresnan and Will Jefferson floored easy catches in the slip cordon. Recovering from the early nervousness the inform batsman showed his character during his match-saving knock as he clung to the crease for nearly six hours to execute 13 well-struck boundaries in his 256-ball innings.

The valuable partnership was broken when Faruque was caught behind of the spin of Alex Loudon but not before the young left-hander had made a valuable contribution of 31 runs that came from 130 deliveries.

With the dismissal of the third wicket stand, the hosts got another jolt but Tushar survived in one end to make sure that his team would not lose the rain-interrupted match after the entire first day's play was washed out. Wicketkeeper Sahagir Hossain (7) was promoted up the batting order but Jefferson caught him at third slip after Bresnan rising delivery slightly shaved his bat. Also, Nadif Chowdhury and Marshal Ayub continued their frustrating shows after returning to the dressing room cheaply. Onions, Loudon and Bresnan captured two wickets each.

"We wanted to bat out three sessions and we have done that. I had one bad over (in which he was dropped twice) but after that I played according to the match situation," said Tushar who was looking ahead. "The 'Test' series has been lost but we will give our optimum to win the one-day series".

"We came here to play in different conditions, won one match, drew the other and won the series. That is not a bad result at all. We tried hard to win this rain-affected match also. But their captain (Tushar) played brilliantly today," said touring captain Yardy.

The two teams now lock horns in a three-match limited-over series with the first game taking place at the same venue on Wednesday.