Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has said their confidence will not be shattered following the loss against mighty South Africa by 52 runs in the first match of the two-match National Polymer T20I Cricket Series at Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium (SBNCS) in Mirpur on Sunday.
The Tigers’ captain was addressing a post-match press conference at the SBNCS.
“Whoever says what, it won’t destroy confidence in us. We lost this match, of course, playing a good cricket,” he said.
Observing that today’s match was in their hand, he said it slipped away due to batting collapse.
If they could have managed to score 40 to 50 plus runs in the first six overs, they could reach the target, Mashrafe said.
He said he wants to play the next match with a full confident team overcoming their mistakes they did in the Sunday’s match.
Mashrafe felt that he has to find out the way as to how the team can come back in the match overcoming the early batting collapse in any battle against any team and on any type of wicket.
He also praised the opponent, saying: “They batted very well till the end against the good deliveries of our bowlers. They’re always good in this format as well.”
The captain also considered Mushfiqur Rahim still as the best wicketkeeper for the Tigers.
Meanwhile, South African player Rilee Rossouw, who scored not out run-a-ball 31 for the side, thinks that the match was not so easy for them.
“It’s never an easy game for us against Bangladesh compared to their anticipation,” said Rossouw. “I think they bowled really-really well, but we were lucky,” he added.
The second T20I match between two teams will be held on Tuesday (July 7) at 1pm at the same venue.
Apart from T20Is, the visitors will play three ODIs and two Test matches against Tigers in the five-week long full-fledged bilateral series to Bangladesh.
