The last eight months have been particularly memorable for teams in one-day internationals. Since the World Cup, Bangladesh and England have both made good use of home conditions to overcome opponents far more fancied than themselves: after an impressive World Cup campaign, Bangladesh thrashed Pakistan 3-0 and India 2-1, while England overcame New Zealand 3-2. Two out of four World Cup semi-finalists played away series, and lost against opponents they were expected to beat.

Home advantage has always counted for a bit in cricket, but never as much as it has in one-day internationals in the last eight months. The numbers are quite incredible: in 75 matches, home teams have won 61 and lost only ten, a win-loss ratio of 6.1.

This period began with India’s 5-0 whitewash of Sri Lanka in November last year, and then continued with Australia’s 4-1 defeat of South Africa, and Bangladesh’s 5-0 drubbing of Zimbabwe. In the lead-up to the World Cup, Australia won four games without losing any in the tri-series against India and England, while South Africa beat West Indies 4-1. In the World Cup itself, the two dominant teams were the ones which hosted the tournament: New Zealand won eight out of eight at home, while Australia, the eventual champions, won seven out of seven. (One match, against Bangladesh, was washed out, while their only defeat was in New Zealand.) Since the World Cup, Bangladesh and England have kept the flag flying for the home teams, while Pakistan have chipped in too, with a 2-0 win in a historic home series against Zimbabwe. During these eight months, Australia have a 15-1 win-loss record at home, Bangladesh 10-1, and New Zealand 14-2.

All those results add up to complete home dominance over the last eight months. The table below looks at year-wise ODI home results over the last decade, and never has the skew been as prominent as it is now. In fact, between January and October 2014, home teams won fewer ODIs than they lost. In all the other years since 2005, the win-loss ratio for home teams has never exceeded 1.68 (69-41) in 2010.

In 2015 so far, the ODI win-loss ratio for home teams is 6.5 (39 wins, six losses), which is by far the best in any calendar year. The next-best, with a 20-match cut-off, is 1989 ratio of 2.75 (32-22). When grouping the numbers by decade, though, the 2010s is only marginally ahead of the 1990s, suggesting this is just a one-off occurrence. For the moment, the home teams are surely not complaining.

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Can they make their most successful year in international cricket even better?

By beating South Africa 2-1 in the ODI series last week, Bangladesh propelled to a different stratum of performance and answered the question asked of them at the end of their 2-1 ODI series win over India. Between 2002 and 2011, Bangladesh dreaded playing against South Africa, losing 13 out of the 14 ODIs they played in this period. But in the space of five days, not only did they fight back from three demoralising losses in the T20s and first ODI, they dominated a dominant force.

As their international schedule stands now, Bangladesh have no more ODIs in 2015, and will play in the format again only during a five-match series against Zimbabwe early next year. The BCB is trying to persuade West Indies to play three ODIs and three T20s in November this year, but negotiations are still ongoing.

If the South Africa ODI series was indeed their last of 2015, then Bangladesh should be proud for recording the fourth-most ODI wins in the first six-and-a-half months of the year, and also for ending with the third-best win/loss ratio behind Australia and New Zealand. The 2-1 series win against South Africa also cemented their place in the 2017 Champions Trophy.

The manner in which Bangladesh engineered the turnaround against South Africa was quite simple, but someone had to sit down and do the straight-talking with a team that lost three games in the space of a week.

Mashrafe Mortaza had less than 48 hours to turn around from being 1-0 down on July 10. Coupled with the 2-0 T20 series defeat, there was suddenly some ill-feeling, much of which was unnecessary. Mashrafe held lengthy discussions with the batsmen and bowlers and asked them to remember how they won against India and Pakistan, and repeat it on July 12 and 15.

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