Bangladesh heaved a sigh of relief as they finally broke the Pakistan jinx with a 79-run win in their first of the three-match one-day international series in Dhaka on Friday. The Tigers suffered heart-breaks many times over the last 16 years since triumphed over Pakistan in 1999 and despite the odds heavily favouring them were not guaranteed of success this time as well.
‘It means a lot,’ said stand-in skipper Sakib al Hasan after they post a record 329-6 and then dismissed Pakistan for 250 in 45.2 overs to post an easy win at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium.
‘There is a bit of grudge obviously when you can’t win,’ said Sakib. ‘We didn’t win against them in any format in the last 16 years, it’s been long time.
‘The last few matches that we played against Pakistan they were close and they could have come our way, so we were more desperate today and in the end the result came in our favour.’
Sakib said that they will look forward to clinch the series coming into
the next match with an upper hand over the opponents.
‘I said it earlier that I believe we have the ability to win the series and after winning the first match in a three-match series we just have to win one more,’ said Sakib.
‘We will have the upper hand and the confidence will be high on the next two matches, thought won’t be easy, we have to play our best cricket, if we can continue so, the result will be good for us.’
Sakib showered Tamim Iqbal with praise after the opener scored 132 and shared a record 178 runs for the third wicket with fellow centurion Mushfiqur Rahim (106) to set up the win.
The opener was under pressure after he failed to get a big innings over last three World Cup matches and continued his poor form in domestic BCL tournament.
‘The way he built up his innings was brilliant,’ said Sakib. ‘He was under a bit of pressure but it never showed in his batting.
He played his natural game.’ Mushfiq won the man-of-the-match for his 77-ball innings, but the right-hander said it could have easily gone to Tamim. ‘I am surprised that I got the man-of-the-match award. Tamim played a very calculative and mature innings.’
-With New Age input
