‘Bangladesh did not apply enough pressure’ - Mahnudullah
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Bangladesh lost the first T20I against Sri Lanka in the ongoing 2-match T20 series between the two teams. A run-galore at Mirpur resulted in Sri Lanka sealing a share of the spoils as the hosts were handed a 6-wicket defeat.
After losing the tri-nation series final and the Test series against the island nation, Bangladesh missed their only chance to grab a series-win against the visitors in the T20s as well. After a disappointing run in 2017, Sri Lanka have revived greatly under their new head coach Chandika Hathurusingha who offered the team a great deal of consistency.
Although Sri Lanka won the match with 20 balls remaining, Bangladesh stand-in skipper Mahmudullah Riyad thinks that Bangladesh's total was 10-15 runs short and their total should have gone past 200 runs. The Tigers’ skipper also opined that applying enough pressure on the opponents could have turned things around.
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Mahmudullah reportedly said, "I think we were 10-15 runs short. We should've scored over 200. Mushi at No. 3 was quite a bit of change, but Soumya and Zakir started well.
“Credit goes to the SL batters, though, and we didn't apply enough pressure. Having Arif and the others gives us a bit more depth in the batting, but we didn't execute our lengths with the ball. Hope to finish the season on a high in Sylhet."
Dinesh Chandimal was quite happy to lose the toss. According to him the batsmen were outstanding to chase down the big total.
Winning-captain Dinesh Chandimal stated, "We didn't think the wicket will be this good. It was a good toss to lose, and credit goes to the batsmen - they played outstanding cricket. It's never easy chasing 194 in any wicket."