Shakib Al Hasan of Bangladesh plays a shot during the opening T20I game of the 2-match series against South Africa at Mirpur:
Ace allrounder Shakib Al Hasan has described the third and final ODI, due to take place in Chittagong, against South Africa as ‘a big opportunity’ for the hosts.
While Bangladesh have been enjoying a splendid run in ODIs this year, the odds, with regards to this series win is against them.
Mashrafe Bin Mortaza’s men have never beaten South Africa in a series. They have also never successfully won an ODI series, against a top-eight side, after losing the first match.
Considering all the circumstances, Shakib’s remark does not come as a surprise.
“We give every match the same amount of importance; some go according to plan, some don’t. But because this is the series decider, this is important.”
“We haven’t lost a series at home for a long time. So this is an opportunity. I won’t say that this is a very big match, but I will say this is a big opportunity for us,” said Shakib at the pre-match press conference in Chittagong yesterday.
“It’s a big deal whenever a team goes on to achieve something that they haven’t done before. We have not beaten South Africa in a series, so this can be big,” he added.
From the other end, South Africa leg-spinner Imran Tahir stated that the visitors would have to overcome a challenge in order to win the series tomorrow.
“They played well in the last game and we are looking forward for a challenge tomorrow. We are going to try our best and hope for a good result,” said Tahir.
According to Tahir, the thumping seven-wicket defeat at the hands of the hosts on Sunday, which had seemed to take place against the flow, did not affect the dressing room.
“All is going well in our camp. We are very happy people. We always fight and we never look back. We have a good group of players and we are not worried about the last match or the one before that. We are just looking forward to the next game,” Tahir explained.
As the wicket was covered during South Africa’s practice session in the morning, Tahir and co did not get a chance to look at it.
However, the leg-spinner doesn’t expect it to be too different from the last two ODIs.
He reckons that a total of above 250 could be a match-winning figure in the decider tomorrow.
Shakib echoed Tahir’s views. “ I think whether 250 will be a good total or not is something we can understand after looking at the way the wicket behaves.”
“However, in a game decider if a team does score 250 then there will be pressure on the chasing side,” said the left-hander.
The ace allrounder also added that the Tigers were not likely to make any changes in the final ODI.
Bangladesh have won nine out of their 15 ODIs played at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium in Chittagong.
Tomorrow’s match will also be the last chance for both Shakib Al Hasan and Mashrafe Mortaza to take 200 wickets this year.
Shakib has 198 wickets and skipper Mashrafe 199 ODI scalps respectively.
So far Abdur Razzak is the only Bangladeshi player to have reached that mark.
Source: The Daily Star