‘It was a good day’
New Zealand managed to bounce back to keep their hopes alive in the five-match T20I series as they handed Bangladesh a thumping 52-run defeat in the third T20I at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
Attempting to chase 129, Bangladesh were bundled out for 76 — their joint second-lowest T20I total, and the lowest at home as well -- while the Black Caps on the other hand, successfully defended their third-lowest total in the shortest format.
Left-arm spinner Ajaz Patel has been the chief destroyer for the Black Caps as he ended up picking four wickets conceding 16 from his four overs. "Quite happy, tried to control out there and the surface was something for the spinners. Obviously, I tried to read the batsmen and knew that they'd look to come hard against me. It was a good day overall and every one of us did their job well," said Patel.
Bangladesh's approach remained questionable right from the start despite the fact that the Tigers were flying on 23 inside three overs where Liton Das, after striking two boundaries, went for one too many in the same over from Cole McConchie and departed after scoring 15.
Since then it all spiralled downhill for Bangladesh as they kept losing wickets in clusters and were never able to get back in contention. Mahedi Hasan, promoted to number three, departed on one while Shakib Al Hasan, while going for a big heave in the same over, became Ajaz Patel's second victim and headed back to pavilion without troubling the score.
According to Bangladesh coach Russell Domingo, the approach from the Tigers' batsmen was to stay ahead of the asking run-rate and the target of 129 was within their reach where he also added that they expected the Mirpur surface to get better as the innings progressed but things didn't go Bangladesh's way. "The boys have been fantastic, playing a lot of cricket in recent times, and I can't falter after the way things went over the last one-two months. We know we had a bad day today but we can't think about it too much and can only focus on our next game," he added.
Before the series started, Domingo informed that Mushfiqur Rahim and Nurul Hasan will split the wicket-keeping duties for the first four games. However, it was Nurul who was seen behind the stumps in yesterday's game too and according to Domingo, Mushfiqur informed that he does not want to keep wickets anymore in T20Is.
"There has been a change. Initially, after speaking to Mushy (Mushfiqur Rahim) he was going to keep after the second game but he told me that he doesn't want to keep wickets in T20 anymore. So we've got to move on and I don't think Mushfiq's desire to keep is great in this format anymore. So we have to focus on Sohan, and possibly Liton, while going forward in this competition," added Domingo.