Bangladesh's dominating run against West Indies in ODIs came to an end as Sherfane Rutherford's maiden century helped Shai Hope-led side to chase down the target of 295 with 14 balls to spare. While Rutherford scored at a strike rate over 140, Bangladesh captain Mehidy Hasan Miraz batted at no.4 and scored 74 runs from 101 balls. Had it not been for the partnership with Mahmudullah and Jaker Ali, Bangladesh would not have been able to set a target of 295. In the post-match press conference, Miraz revealed that he was not thinking about his century and was cautious as wickets fell at the other end.
"The century was not an issue for me and all I needed was to take the team to a good place. I tried to play for runs and put up a good score before 40 overs because I was feeling that in this wicket if we could post 300 plus it would have been good for us and that is the reason I played for runs," Mehidy said after West Indies put an end to a losing streak of 11 ODIs against Bangladesh.
"Look when I started, a set batsman got out and in fact two set batters got out as Tanzim was out and after doing a partnership Afif also I could not take risk because I knew if a set batsman gets out, it will be a pressure for the new batsman and so I tried to continue. And when Riyad [Mahmudullah] bhai got set I tried to take the charge.
"The way Jaker Ali and Riyad bhai finished was brilliant and if that was not the case the runs could [have been] lesser but we played well as a batting unit."
When Miraz came in to bat, Bangladesh were 46/2 in the eighth over. Opener Tanzid Hasan contributed with a run-a-ball 60. Afif Hossain did not waste too many deliveries either but Miraz reached his fifty from 71 deliveries.
Miraz blames bowlers for loss
Miraz got the wicket of West Indies skipper Shai Hope but conceded 62 runs from nine overs. He feels that the batters did a good job in the absence of experienced players but bowlers lost the plot in the middle overs.
"Batting wise we batted well and put up a good total and our bowlers also started well but in the middle overs, they did a partnership and we could not get wickets and that middle-over partnership put us in the back foot," said the all-rounder.
"Our bowlers did well in the first half [of the chase] as the game was in our control for first 25 to 30 overs and they took the game away from us in the last 20 overs when they charged, but still I feel we have lot of positives... like our batsmen did well and bowlers bowled well initially and we could have won the game if we could improve on certain areas," he added.