‘Afif, Sohan showed maturity’
Bangladesh's T20 captain Mahmudullah Riyad showered his praise on his two young guns -- Afif Hossain and Nurul Hasan -- after his side's five-wicket win in the second T20I against Australia at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday.
"It's very pleasing to see Afif (Hossain) and Sohan (Nurul Hasan) stand up, carry us to the end. They showed maturity. And up front, our bowlers did very well to restrict them to 120," said Mahmudullah in the post-match briefing.
Afif and Nurul showed great character on difficult batting conditions after a top-order hiccup, as their unbeaten 56-run stand steered Bangladesh to the shores of victory with eight balls to spare.
And especially Afif, who was adjudged player of the match for his match-winning, unbeaten 37-run innings, was fearless which was just what the doctor had ordered at that particular stage of the game when he had arrived.
The young gun showed that he has the great potential to rise to the occasion in the shortest version of the game. When an experienced batsman like Mahmudullah had failed to maintain his nerve in a tricky situation, the young batsman stepped up to demonstrate the most significant aspect of his repertoire where he played his natural game to nullify the pressure that had manifested prior to his arrival.
"Losing few early wickets caused tension in the dressing room, but the way Afif and Sohan (Nurul) batted, it brought a lot of relief," admitted a content looking Mahmudullah.
Moreover, Bangladesh captain had special praise and admiration reserved for his champion all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan, who made 26 off 17 balls after taking one wicket for 22 runs in four overs.
"But Shakib was very important with bowling and batting, shows how important he is to the team," said Mahmudullah.
"I think Mustafizur has always been effective in these conditions. Shoriful bowled really well and all the bowlers chipped in too. We are taking it game by game," he added further.
On the losing camp, Australian skipper Matthew Wade rued over his side's batting failure, and especially their inability to raise the tempo at the crucial tail end of their innings had painted him a frustrated figure.
"We were in a good position today (with the ball), but unfortunately we struggled with the bat in the last four overs. Very disappointing. We were in a good position to get 130s-140s, a good score on this track. Their quicks took pace off well, and we'll look to do better there," said a depleted looking Wade.
"The bowlers from both teams have been terrific. Agar was terrific again. Our bowling is definitely not the problem. We are happy with how they are going. We've had a game where the top wasn't great, and this time our bottom-half with the bat wasn't," he opined.
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