Biggest one-day success abroad

Eurobd news: Bangladesh captain Mushfiqur Rahim did not hesitate to term their three-wicket victory against Sri Lanka yesterday as their biggest one-day success abroad. The little man might have been little over excited in his reaction after their maiden ODI success against the Lankans on their home soil, but he probably was correct to say that the victory would take Bangladesh’s cricket one step forward towards their goal — to play good and consistent cricket on foreign soil like they do in  home matches.
The Bangladesh skipper took a lot of pride in the victory which helped them square the three-match series 1-1 without their key players like Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim Iqbal.
“You know we missed some of our key players to injuries, so it was a great challenge and the pressure was there but we still won the match to draw the series which I think is the biggest win against a major team abroad,” said Mushfiqur while talking in a post-match press conference at the Pallekele International Stadium last night.
Left-arm spinner Abdur Razzak made it his day with a five-wicket haul — the fifth one making him the first Bangladeshi to take 200 ODI wickets — but Mushfiqur must thank Nasir Hossain for making the day most memorable for him because in the end it was not Tillakaratne Dilshan’s hundred or Razzak’s feat that had the telling effect on the outcome of the match as his unbeaten 33 runs sealed the deal.

“Hats off to him [Nasir], he has the signs of becoming a great player. I believe he will hold all the batting records for Bangladesh if he carries on like this. You see he came out with his best when the team needed it most,” were Mushfiqur’s words for Nasir. He also thanked Raj (Razzak) because “he is a tough guy and I also rely on his bowling”.
Coach Shane Jurgensen was a relieved man after the victory and highly praised the fearless approach of Nasir and said the right-hander can play on front foot and back foot with equal ease which is the secret behind his success while selector Habibul Bashar termed it a great win for Bangladesh cricket. He also branded Nasir as a “match winner” and quality batsman.
Sri Lanka skipper Angelo Mathews, who believed that the 1-1 result was justified after the way Bangladesh played in the series, was not ready to take away the credits from the Tigers for the rain factor.
“Credit should go to Bangladesh. We were not good in bowling. Even after the curtailed target we had the chance but we could not bowl well despite having a brilliant unit. Bangladesh played brilliantly,” said Mathews in his reaction.
Mushfiqur however said that chasing 183 in 27 overs was easier than chasing more than 300 in 50 overs. “Obviously the revised target was easier than the 300-plus run target. But we got a good start from Ashraful and Bijoy [Anamul Haque]. During the rain break, we were thinking about what we will finally get in D/L method. Seeing the target we were confident because we still had nine wickets in hand. What we thought was we needed a partnership and 30-40 runs from someone. True there were some panic in the middle but finally we finished it brilliantly. We had a plan not to give any wicket to [Lasith] Malinga as we had enough overs but still we lost two wickets to him but after that we made it for us. It’s really a great win,” said Mushfiqur.
He branded their victory against Sri Lanka in Asia Cup as one of their biggest successes but he wanted to give more emphasis on yesterday’s win because he believed that it’s not easy to beat Sri Lanka in Sri Lanka.
He repeatedly told that winning a match without the key players was a huge achievement. And he said that he want to see his team perform well consistently on foreign soil.

Category: English News