England all-rounder Ben Stokes labelled his team's hard-fought one-day international win over Bangladesh as "special".

Stokes scored his maiden ODI century to guide England to 309-8 in the opening game of the series in Mirpur on Friday.

Imrul Kayes (112) appeared to have the hosts on track in their chase, only for Bangladesh to lose 17-6 and slump to a 21-run loss.

"That's sort of the thing that you need to be doing if you want to become the best team in the world and obviously that's something we want to do," Stokes told Sky Sports.

"The character we showed there, when we were up against it, it sort of looked like the game was getting away from us, to come back from that kind of position [was great].

"It's one of the special wins for us."

Debutant Jake Ball was the hero for England as he took 5-51, while Adil Rashid grabbed 4-49.

Stokes also described how difficult the conditions were to play in, saying: "It is very, very draining.

"As soon as you're walking out there, you haven't faced a ball, you're dripping wet through with sweat already and it just sort of saps you.

"You go through four, five pairs of gloves in an inning only lasting an hour. Credit to everyone who's bowled the overs."

Game two of the three-game series is Sunday.