Bangladesh ace all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan who led the Tigers victory over mighty South Africa with a sterling performance said the win would give them a momentum to achieve their goal in the cricket’s biggest extravaganza.
Shakib scored match-defining 84 ball-75 and claimed 1-50 to be instrumental in Tigers’ 21-run victory over Proteas. The performance earned him the man of the match award.
The No.1 all-rounder of world also dubbed it as one of their biggest win.
Bangladesh posted their highest ODI score as they put on 330-6 runs while Shakib wrote his name in the history book as well.
As the 32-year old picked up the wicket of Eiden Markrram to claim 250 wickets in ODIs, it made him the fastest all-rounder in cricket’s history to reach the rare double of 5000 runs and 250 ODI wickets.
Only four players-Pakistan’s Shahid Afridi, Abdul Razzak, South Africa’s Jacques Kallis and Sri Lanka’s Sanath Jayasuriya, completed this double before him.
“I think this is one of our top wins. We have had a few upsets before in World Cup, but this time we want to prove and the start can’t get any better,” said Shakib after the match.
“Before arriving here, we had the belief, we needed this start and we need to build on the momentum. I played two years for Worcestershire and I know the conditions here,” he said.
“We played the 2017 Champions trophy and we had a fair idea about how the wickets behave, knew it was good for batting. Didn’t know about the record (record partnership for the third wicket), we had a good start and we both (himself and Rahim) knew that we needed to build on that opening,” he said.
“Our confidence is really good at the moment, the next game here against New Zealand is a big game, they are a strong team and will come hard at us. Looking forward to that match,” he concluded.
