Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hossain was returning to the dressing room after finishing batting practice. Head coach Chandika Hathurusinghe stopped by calling from a distance! Their discussion continued for about ten minutes near the center wicket. What could be the agenda of their mini-meeting is, presumably, tomorrow’s ‘unwritten final’. After talking to Soumya Sarkar and Tawheed Hriday for a while, Hathurusinghe entered the press conference room. He said that his team is on the verge of making history.
Bangladesh has played five T20 series against Sri Lanka in the last ten years. But till now they could not win any series against them. However, in this series, Bangladesh has a chance to overcome that regret. A win against the Lankans on Saturday will ensure a T20 series win against them for the first time. Despite losing the first match, Bangladesh put up a great fight. The visitors did not care in the second match. Hathurusinghe said that it is possible to win the series if the field plans are implemented.
Hathurusinghe said, ‘The way we implemented our batting-bowling plans in the previous match, in one word it can be called perfect. We are on course to win this series. But we have to consider other things to win the series. It is match of the day. There are many things to be aware of here. If we can execute our match plans, we will definitely have a great chance to win the series. It should also be remembered that Sri Lanka is a good T20 team.
In response to a question asked by a Lankan journalist, Hathurusinghe said once again, ‘Yes, we are standing in front of something that we could not do before. We are on the verge of making history. Hasaranga will also play tomorrow, we are ready to face him.’
Although the top order failed in the first match, Bangladesh almost reached the target of 207 runs with the great batting of Mahmudullah-Zaker Ali. In the end though, he couldn’t. However, in the second match, the hosts defeated Sri Lanka by a big margin of 8 wickets. Hathurusinghe is very happy after correcting the mistakes of the first match and doing well in the second match, ‘Last match was perfect. We were absolutely perfect in bowling-batting. What is important to me is how much we learned from the loss in the first match. Dew affected both teams in the first match. Our bowlers have learned how to bowl on such a pitch. It is a relief to see the way the batsmen used the power play in the last match.
Bangladesh bowlers spent a lot of runs in the first match but that was not the case in the second match. Shariful-Mostafiz duo gave less runs even though they could not take any wicket in the last 4 overs. Bangladesh team is getting the benefit of regular work on death bowling. Hathurusinghe said, ‘We know what our cricketers can do. It is being worked on regularly. This series has more grass on the pitch, carrying the ball. We wanted to play on high scoring wickets. If you regularly bowl on a 150-run wicket, it creates a habit among the bowlers. Sri Lanka scored 160 runs, we won easily. Even Sri Lanka scored more than 200 runs, we almost chased that too. I am very happy with the performance of my bowlers.’
Last year, Shariful made a strong appearance in international cricket. He maintained this continuity in BPL as well. The youngster won the highest wicket taker award with 22 wickets. In the last two matches, the left-handed pacer has been bowling well in the death overs besides putting the Lankans under pressure at the start. On Shariful’s bowling, Hathurusinghe said separately, ‘He has had a very good time in BPL. Came here (Sri Lanka series) with the same confidence. He did not get much swing in the first match due to dew. Glad to see him adapt quickly in the second game. Right now he has become our main bowler. After Taskin and Fiez (Mostafiz), he is someone who can be trusted.’
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