Mahmudullah hopeful ahead of do-or-die clash
Once again Mushfiqur Rahim repeated his heroics by standing firm and handling the pressure all alone against India. However, the rest of the Bangladeshi batting line-up failed to provide him enough support which finally resulted in India winning the contest by 17 runs and qualifying for the final of the Nidahas Trophy.
Bangladesh still have a chance to make things right in their last group match against the hosts—Sri Lanka. Both the teams have secured two points each from their first three games and their next match will be do-or-die one for them to storm into the final.
Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad was disappointed with his team’s performance. According to him, if they allowed 10 lesser runs, the result could be different.
He said, “A bit disappointed though; had someone stood up and made 20-30 runs it could have made a difference with Mushy. We could have conceded 10 lesser runs and that could have made the difference.
“The plan was to take the pace off the ball and stick to your strengths as a bowler, but they didn't stick to that well. The good thing is that we have a chance to make it to the finals in the next game.”
On the other hand, Rohit Sharma was happy to have finally made some contribution with the bat. He made 89 0ff 61, his highest innings in this competition until now. He praised Washington Sundar for giving them a fantastic start by scalping 3 wickets in the beginning.
“It was important for me to step up. Like I said at the toss I tried to take my time with the bat at the start. I felt we were 10-15 runs short with that bat at the middle stage. But Washington started brilliantly with the ball and his spell changed the game for us.
“The wicket wasn't the usual wicket we've been playing on for the last well. It was gripping and was slow and that is why I wanted to take my time. One set batsman had to bat and I knew a new batsman would find it tough,” Rohit said.
The India skipper hailed Suresh Raina and appreciated Mohammad Siraj’s efforts for his economical spell in the end.
“Raina has been timing the ball brilliantly and that is great to see. He is never afraid of flighting the ball, sets his own field and it says a lot about an individual. In the series we played against Sri Lanka in India we saw that from him and it paid off.
“I just told Siraj to keep it simple and we knew that that was the way to contain them. I asked him to bowl that back of a length ball because we found it tough to hit. He is a great talent, has all the capabilities of doing what a fast bowler has to do and he'll do well for us in the future,” he concluded.
