Mushfiqur Rahim earned Bangladesh an unlikely victory in their T20I match against Sri Lanka on Saturday. Chasing a mammoth target of 215, Mushfiqur came in when Bangladesh were 100/2 in the 10th over. He then shared partnerships with Soumya Sarkar and captain Mahmudullah and ended the match unbeaten on 72 off 35 balls. Bangladesh crossed the line with two balls and five wickets to spare and thus completed their highest successful T20I run chase. Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal said that Mushfiqur had now made amends for his mistake in Bangladesh’s 2016 World T20 loss to India in Bangalore, reports Indian Express.
“The guy who made the mistake in Bangalore, he didn’t do it today,” Tamim said. In the 2016 match, Bangladesh needed 10 runs to win off the last five balls. Mushfiq hit two boundaries off the last two balls and followed the second four by punching the air and celebrating in front of bowler Hardik Pandya. He was dismissed off the very next ball and Bangladesh lost two more wickets to lose the match by one run.
“I always feel that there’s a lot to learn from a good game or a bad game. The amount of criticism Mushfiqur copped on that day, I think he should be praised the same amount now. He handled it very well today. He didn’t have time to think. He had to go from ball one. He kept on batting, and finished the job. I think it is probably his best T20 innings.”
The extraordinary win comes on the heels of Bangladesh’s meek surrender to India in their previous match of the Tri-Series. Tamim said that Bangladesh now have the confidence to play their own brand of cricket.
“We might not have big power hitters but we can plan and play a Bangladeshi brand of T20 cricket,” Tamim said. “We can’t follow England or West Indies because we have a different kind of players. We don’t have someone like MS Dhoni to come at No 7. We don’t have a Chris Gayle to take on the bowlers from the first ball. I think we have smart cricketers, who are different. It is not about hitting sixes and fours all the time. In the middle overs we saw that by taking a lot of singles. Boundaries will come.”
“This will definitely give us a lot of confidence. It is one of our best wins but I am a big believer in the fact that we haven’t conquered everything by just one win. It has given us confidence of chasing 215 runs. It is not the end, but just the start. We really needed this as a team.”
Tamim also pointed out that it was a team effort that helped them win the match. He had scored 47 off 29 balls while Liton Das made 43 off 19. The two openers had shared a 74-run stand. “We don’t have power hitters but we found boundaries and singles whenever it was required. Soumya Sarkar’s 24 may not be noticed in the scoreboard, but it was very important for us. He rotated the strike and struck boundaries in the right time. We were desperate to win today’s game, especially after what happened in our last series at home. But the format is such that you always have to come up with something new,” he said.