Follow UsIn a contest that will be remembered for the ‘Timed out’ controversy, Bangladesh won their second game against Sri Lanka yesterday (November 6) by 3 wickets. Skipper Shakib Al Hasan led from the front, scoring 82 off just 65 balls in the chase after picking up two crucial wickets in the first innings. Sri Lankan bowlers came back with a flurry of wickets late in the chase, but Bangladesh were already in the ascendancy and, despite the delayed hiccup, managed to coast through the target with 3 wickets in hands.
The partnership between Najmul Hossain Shanto and Shakib was the key for Bangladesh in the second innings as the two southpaws combined to accumulate 169 runs for their team, which proved decisive in a 280 chase. Shakib was quite happy with the partnership which was meticulous in its approach. He said,
“Yeah, I mean, when we [Bangladesh] lost two wickets, we had to rebuild. We know the wickets is good. We had to bat deep, make a partnership and that will ease a lot of pressure. That's exactly what we did and when we had the opportunity we capitalized, we counterattacked them, put a lot of pressure back on them because it wasn't an easy piece to bat on. Also, dew was helping us a lot. So, we know that ball was coming onto the bats, we had to just bat deep. When we were on the 17th, 18th over, we were just saying that if we bat 30th over, we can take the game close to the finishing like and if one of us stays, we can finish it early.”
He also mentioned that the Bangladeshi team was looking to chase down the target early for NRR advantage which may prove to be crucial in their Champions Trophy Qualification (Bangladesh is out of the semifinal race).
“...after that, when we lost a couple of quick wickets, myself and Shanto got out. We still were looking to chase it 41.2 overs or something that gives [takes] us ahead of, I think, a couple of the teams. That's what we are looking to do. Trying to do that cost us some wickets. But in the end, very happy the way we played.”
Shakib also remarked that this win augurs well for his team, as there is still a lot to play for Bangladesh in their game against Australia with Champions Trophy qualifications on the line.
Also read - Champions Trophy Qualification: Four teams fight for two remaining spots
“I think today's match will give us confidence. This will calm a little in the dressing room. The noise will be reduced a little. This will help us play better. But Australia obviously is a very good team. The way they played cricket until now, they are one of the contenders…We have the belief, this win would help us a lot for that. One more match is very important for us if we can win. Then we can be sure that we will qualify for the World Cup [Champions Trophy].”
Shakib also mentioned how the win against Sri Lanka would give a lot of confidence to his team. He said, “This match will give us that insistence or confidence that yes, we can do well with any team. So, I believe that our team will play the next match with a different approach and try their best to play good cricket and win the match.”
Despite the good performance yesterday, Bangladesh have had a poor World Cup, as apart from their win against Afghanistan, they couldn’t win any other game. Shakib regrets not performing better and winning those extra games that would have eventually helped them for the Champions Trophy qualifications.
“Yeah, I mean if we could have done that in earlier matches that would have been better. One or two matches, if we could have won, that would have been nice. We would have been on a nice position at this moment. Yes, we had a lot of expectation, not from outside, not from our country. I thought we let ourselves down. I thought the target we set within the team, the thing that we thought that we are capable of doing, we couldn't do it. So that's the disappointment we all have.”
Bangladesh play Australia on November 11 in Pune, in what would be the last league stage game of both the nations.