Published on 04:43 PM, April 07, 2023

‘I never played against someone who batted with sunglasses’

Liton Das walking away after getting out (L) while Mark Adair (R) celebrates. Photo: Firoz Ahmed

Liton Das was donning a sunglass in the first innings but did not wear one as he came out to open in the second innings. Mark Adair got the better of Liton in the second innings after a rapid start and the bowler gave a send-off to Liton, motioning to put on his sunglasses to watch where the ball had gone.

Adair bowled a bouncer which hit Liton's helmet before the ball ricocheted off Liton's bat to crash on to the stumps. Liton was perplexed for a moment, wondering how the ball went behind and hit his stumps to castle him but Adair, who enjoyed the wicket, told Liton to put on the glasses again.

Asked on Adair's send-off, Balbirnie found Liton's glasses while batting in the first innings to be quite amusing.

"I never played against someone who batted with sunglasses on. It looked pretty cool. I wouldn't be doing it myself. I'm not sure whether there was a prescription. He played nicely in the first innings but it was just a bit of fun. We were trying to create an uncomfortable atmosphere," Balbirnie said at the press conference today.

Liton departed for a 19-ball 23 but his innings provided the momentum to avert pressure during the chase. Najmul Hossain Shanto was coming in next after Liton and Ireland skipper said that they wanted to create pressure on the batter coming in to the crease.

"With Shanto obviously we tried to create something cause he was gone first ball for a duck in the first innings and we tried to create a bit of pressure for him there cause we knew in order to win the game, we had to do something different. Yeah Mark enjoyed that one," Balbirnie said.

Bangladesh went on to win with seven wickets in hand after unbeaten knocks of 51 and 20 from Mushfiqur Rahim and Mominul Haque respectively.

Asked if they felt that they could have won, Ireland captain said all the pressure to win was on Bangladesh.

"100 per cent (felt we had a chance of winning this morning). The wicket was still pretty good, Ebadot bowled well, he attacked the stumps but we were confident we could get a 180 lead. Our message was all the pressure was on Bangladesh. If they had lost this game there would have been a lot more people in this press room. Even if they were 100 for none chasing 130 the pressure was on them, no-one expected Ireland to come here and win a Test match. We knew we needed early wickets but the way Liton played took the momentum away but we stuck at it, created chances, but it just wasn't to be," he added on Ireland's fight.