Bangladesh skipper Mashrafee bin Muratza makes an unsuccessful appeal during their first one-day international against Afghanistan at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium on Sunday.
Bangladesh skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza said on Monday that he was relieved to get over the opening match against Afghanistan as his team-mates could hold their nerves during the time of crisis.
Bangladesh won a cliffhanger against the visitors to go one-up in the three match one-day international series but not before losing their sweat as they were close to suffer a big embarrassment.
‘Naturally it is relieving,’ Mashrafee told reporters on Monday, reflecting his views on the game.
‘We were playing after 10 [11] months so naturally there were some kind of shakiness in our body language. But it was pleasing to see we came back into the game just when it mattered,’ he said.
Bangladesh showed lack of intensity during most of their bowling innings and were about to be punished by Afghanistan before a dramatic late surge helped them recover.
Taskin Ahmed, who ended with a figure of 4-59, bowled poorly during his initial spells but bowled two outstanding overs in the end to snatch a seven-run victory from the jaw of defeat.
Sakib al Hasan’s picked 2-26, skipper Mashrafee bin Murtaza (2-42), Taijul Islam (1-44) and Rubel Hossain (1-62) also aided him to pull off the heist and brushed off the scare that Afghans produced.
Rahmat Shah struck a solid half-century of 71 off 93 balls while Hashmatullah Shahidi complemented with 72 off 110 balls to take Afghanistan close before they spectacularly collapsed to be dismissed for 258 runs.
Masharfee’s decision to keep faith on Taskin looked to be the master-class act as he did not bowl well initially and was included in the squad just before the series after being cleared by the ICC.
Mashrafee said that on that crucial juncture of the game it was not an easy decision at all to choose whom to bowl the pivotal overs.
‘It was a difficult to choose but I did not have many options. I gave Taskin considering his recent form,’ said Tigers skipper.
Earlier in the post match press conference on Monday, man of the match Sakib said they could come out successful only because of their experience.
‘I think they [Afghanistan] lacked experience which cost them the game,’ said Sakib also made useful contribution with the bat having scored 48 off 40 balls.
‘We, on the other, hand used our experience. We have quite a few players who played lot of one-day internationals.
‘As I said earlier, first match of a season is always tricky, since we played after a long time. But I hope things will improve from the second match.’
Source: New Age