Bangladesh skipper Mashrafe Mortaza praised his batsmen for their second best successful run chase in World Cup history as they registered a memorable six wicket win over Scotland in Nelson, New Zealand.
He was talking to journalists after the match in Nelson as reported by cric info today. Bangladesh skipper said, ” : The boys have done really well, especially the batsmen. Tamim was outstanding, along with Shakib and Mushfiqur. Still our bowlers did not bowl well, but our batsmen got runs, especially with a big match (against England) coming up.
Surprisingly he missed out Mahmudullah’s sparkling 62-ball priceless 62 runs and Sabbir Rahman’s unbeaten quick fire 42 off 40 balls.
Former national cricketer Syed Ishtiaq talking to BSS said, ” It was a fantastic batting by Tiger batsmen. After the quick departure of Soumya Sarkar who was drafted in as opener Anamul Haque Bijoy got injured, Scots threatened to take full control of the proceedings but it was out of form Tamim Iqbal and Mahmudullah Riyad got hold of the helm to take the Tigers out of the troubled water.
” Tamim took his time to settle but Mahmudullah looked to be in supreme touch as they batted brilliantly to full control of the proceedings. They added priceless 139 runs for the 2nd wicket stand. Mushfiq’s scintillating 60 runs off 42 deliveries broke the Scott shackles and he made batting look so easy which later helped others to take the queue”.
Ishtiaq was critical of Tigers bowling. He said when you know you are playing in a small ground. So you have to have a plan and bowl on one side of the wicket but I found our bowlers were bowling on both sides of the wicket which helped Scotland batters to milk the runs easily.
Besides Nasir very impressive but called to bowl after 40 overs. Scotts were allowed easy 2 runs off the spinners in the midwicket region by not posting our best fielders. Our seamers surprisingly bowled too short of the length at this small ground allowing rivals batsmen some easy pickings.
Scottish captain Preston Mommsen was upset as they lost two matches in a row where he thought his batsmen did enough but his bowlers failed to take the advantages.
He said, “We were happy, we always knew it was a good wicket. Unfortunately we didn’t create enough chance to take 10 wickets out there. I was trying my best to keep things fresh and keep the batsmen guessing. It’s a huge moment for the team.
“Brilliant innings, I was fortunate to be out there with him. People back home will be proud. We had a bit of time off after that Afghanistan game. We came back refreshed. We were out for today that showed in the first half but we couldn’t win. It’s a case of playing good cricket for a long time now. Two tough times to comes, but it’s exciting as well”.
Kyle Coetzer for scoring his 156 off 134 balls lamented despite winning the man of the match trophy that he was would have been happier if his team would have won. He said, “Not the way we wanted to end the game. We were just not able to create pressure and pick up early wickets. I think we would have taken that score at the start of the day.
” Like I said, we just needed to create a bit of pressure; we didn’t get many opportunities to pick up those wickets. There were a couple of run-out chances may be, but other than that, I thought they batted really well.
It’s been nice to few runs but at the end of the day, the end result of the game is a bit disappointing today. Maybe we would have liked to get to 330. It’s a tough one to take, the guys will be distraught. We deserved a World Cup win.”
