Bangladesh batters made heavy weather of the chase of 125 runs against Sri Lanka but skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto isn't too worried as they were able to make a winning start in the T20 World Cup. (As It Happened|Scorecard|Full Coverage)
Bangladesh were cruising along at 91 for 3 courtesy Towhid Hridoy (40) and Litton Das (36) before they lost five wickets for 21 runs. It was Mahmudullah Riyad, who hit a six off Dasun Shanaka to ensure a two-wicket victory for Shanto's men.
ܫ"I don't think there are many reasons to worry. I'm saying this because it was a very intense match. We wanted to win at the end of the day. So if you think about the result, we got two points," Shanto said at the post-match press conference.
🎀 "All the batsmen know that we didn't bat well. But not everyone plays well everyday. Like Hridoy played a very good innings, Riyad finished the game, Litton gave a beautiful start after a long time. So, we are good in some areas.
𓆏"So, I hope that whoever gets set on any day should make the match win. I don't expect that all the seven batsmen in the team will play well."
The two openers, Tanzid Hassan and Soumya Sarkar, failed but the skipper came to their rescue.
๊"As I said earlier, the game is not for the openers only. We have seven batsmen batting at the top. It's everyone's responsibility.
ꦗ"As a captain, I want that whoever gets set and gets a good start, should finish the game. I hope that the openers will give a good start and finish the game. So, I hope and I am optimistic that everyone will do well."
🃏Rishad Hossain's two wickets in two balls proved to be a game-changer and the skipper was all praise for the young leg-spinner.
🌳"I always have faith in him (Rishad) because he is a wicket-taking bowler. We all know that it's not easy to play a leg-spinner. There can be two or one boundary, but there is always a possibility of taking a wicket. So, I have tried to do that.
💖"And in his case, I haven't seen left-hand or right-hand matters a lot for him. So, as a captain, I wanted him to take out one or two wickets, which he did perfectly."
💮Shanto said that he is more bothered about his players rather than what kind of narrative is being set in social media after they lost a series to the USA just before the T20 World Cup.
ܫ"No, those who talk on social media can say whether this has been stopped, but we cannot control social media. I don't think the players are following social media a lot and it's not in our control either.
🐭"So, we are only thinking about the things we can control and how honest we are, whether we are taking our preparation well and we are trying 100% to make the team win the game.
🏅"We think about these only and the 15-17 players who are here, everyone tries to give their 120%. They think about winning every day to make the team win."
