Shakib hails all-round performance for T20 opener win
BCB
|| CF DESK ||
Sujon roots for Taskin as T20 captain
5 Apr 25
Bangladesh T20 skipper Shakib al Hasan hailed his teammates for their all-round performances in the rain-hit first T20I win against Ireland in Chittagong on Monday.
Rony Talukdar struck a career-best 67 from 38 balls and put on 91 runs in just seven overs in an opening stand with Litton Das, who made 47 off 23 balls.
Shamim Hossain’s 20-ball 30 and Shakib Al Hasan's 20 not out off 13 balls helped Bangladesh race past the 200-run mark before rain brought a premature end.
Ireland's momentum was dashed after a good start when Taskin Ahmed took three wickets in the fourth over of the innings. The 27-year-old took another victim in his following over, giving him a total of four for 16 as the Tigers held Ireland to 81 for 5, giving them a 1-0 series lead.
Shakib praised Tigers’ pace bowling unit as he said couple more players, who are not getting opportunities because of such performances from pacers.
“This is what we want. It is difficult for one or two guys to always contribute, want this kind of all-round performance. They set the pace with the way they opened and played attacking cricket. The new guys coming in are not panicking, they want to come out and perform. The way they are bowling is fantastic, we have a couple more guys who are not getting opportunities because of such performances from our pacers,” Shakib said in the presentation.
Ireland stand-in captain Paul Stirling showed disappointment for ending in the losing side again.
“We got the better conditions today. It looked tricky at some points, but got flatter and flatter. Disappointing to still come out on the wrong side. We've struggled to pick up wickets, we were unlucky in periods and had we got wickets we could have put a squeeze on. I think we came on well in the last ten overs, or the score could have been worse,” Paul Stirling said.
