|| CF Correspondent ||

Albeit the fact that Mehidy Hasan Miraj has utter respect for Mashrafe Bin Mortaza, a thing which he time and again proved, the 21-year Rajshahi skipper played down any fear factor when he faced off his ODI captain’s team in the big stage of Bangladesh Premier League (BPL).

He rather insisted that the feeling was nice to play against a team led by Mashrafe.

“It is obviously a matter of feeling good. Mash is like our elder brother, we know that, and Rangpur is a champion team,” Mehidy said after the match on Sunday. “So it feels good to beat them and the feeling is really different. Almost all of our team are young, and when the young guys perform it became easier to win a game. And after the game, we all are same regardless the team we play for.”

On his first encounter against Mashrafe as a captain, Mehidy had the last laugh as he side clinched a cliffhanger by five runs thanks to a magical bowling from Mustafizur Rahman in the last over.

Mehidy said the self-belief was key behind their victory from a dire strait.

“There was no fear (facing a team led by Mashrafe). At the end of the day, it is a game. Certainly, Rangpur is a good team, and Mashrafe Bhai is very experienced. He won many BPL trophies (three) and the tournaments as well. But we had the belief to come back and we did it. I think our belief was behind our success,” he opined.

Mashrafe however said captaincy in the crunch moment would help Mehidy become a good leader and it will eventually come good for Bangladesh since the former under-19 captain is tipped to be future captain of the country.