As Bangladesh is out of the semi-finals race in the ongoing ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021, Captain Mahmudullah Riyad said the Tigers will play for pride in the remaining two matches in the global tournament after his team’s narrow defeat against the West Indies.
On Friday, October 29, in their do-or-die clash with the West Indies, Bangladesh tried very hard but fell just three runs short of their target of 143 and unfortunately, they suffered the heartbreaking defeat against the defending champions in Sharjah. With the three-run loss to the West Indies, Bangladesh is officially out of the semi-final race at the ICC T20 World Cup 2021.
Bangladesh will now face South Africa and Australia on November 2 and 4 respectively in their remaining games in the ongoing T20 World Cup 2021, and Mahmudullah said the Tigers will give everything to win these last two games to save their pride.
Mahmudullah said in the post-match press conference, “Definitely we’ll play for our pride. We’ve been trying hard and hard to get a win. Two more games to go. We’ll put our everything definitely to win these last two games.”
He also pointed out that Litton Das’ (44) dismissal on the final ball of the 19th over was the turning point of the game, leaving Bangladesh to get 13 runs off the last over for the victory. With four required off the final ball, Andre Russell bowled a yorker to Mahmudullah (31*), but the skipper couldn’t connect it to lose the game by 3 runs.
Talking about that situation, the all-rounder noted: “I think at that point of time we were in a game, we were in a good race against the West Indies. If Litton’s last shot would have been 6, I thought it was probably 6. But that’s an advantage when you have a 6’5" or 6’7" tall fielder in your outfield who can catch. So I think probably that was one crucial moment in that catch.”
The 35-year-old also admitted that the outcome of the match could have been different if him and Das had stayed till the end of the game against the West Indies.
Mahmudullah said, “In T20 games you have the sort of close calls every now and then. Unfortunately, we came second today, but I think probably if me or Litton got into the last over, we were both set, would have been a different story. Having said that, probably Russell nailed his yorkers quite well.”
Expressing his disappointment on letting down Bangladesh supporters, he signed off by saying: “I’m very disappointed because we let them down. They have been supporting throughout all the games. So please, keep supporting us, and inshallah, we’ll try to deliver some wins."
(With IANS Inputs)
