Shakib: We will play for victory

Bangladesh T20I captain Shakib al Hasan said the Tigers will fight hard for a win in their last match of the South Africa tour when the two teams face each other in the second and final T20I Sunday. The Tigers produced some fight in the first T20I Thursday at Mangaung Oval in Bloemfontein. While chasing 196 runs, Bangladesh at one stage were in a commanding position after nine overs. But loss of quick wickets then dented Bangladesh’s charge and in the end, they fell short by 20 runs and Shakib informed that they want to improve on their performance.

Overall, this was only 3rd instance for Bangladesh where two spinners bowled first two overs of an Internl game. https://t.co/IxiOD26one

— CricTracker (@Cricketracker) October 27, 2017

“What else could we want but a win? Definitely we will try to win the last match of the tour. In the first game, everything went well but if we had played better, we would have had a chance of winning. We played with an extra bowler so that we could stop them for around 180-odd. We had the confidence that our batsmen could chase the total on that pitch. I thought we gave away 10-15 extra runs, and our fielding could have been better. But if we can improve in certain areas, we will be able to play a good game in the next match,” said Shakib during the pre-match press conference at Senwes Park Saturday.

Highlights of 1st T20I between Bangladesh and South Africa at Bloemfontein.https://t.co/UDwzbmhrxw

— Bangladesh Cricket (@BCBtigers) October 27, 2017

“We could have been a bit sensible during that time, not lose wickets for about four-five overs. But you have to take risk to get runs in a T20I. I think we need to find the right balance in our batting. And the right balance is to take risk, score runs and not lose a wicket,” he added. T20I is a different ball game and Bangladesh don’t often play the shortest format. The last time the Tigers played a T20I was against Sri Lanka back in March-April this year. But Shakib admitted that this should not be used as an excuse and the team need to adapt to the game very quickly in Potchefstroom.

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Also read: We need to reduce dot balls in next T20I, says Soumya

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“We play T20Is once in a while so it takes a bit of time to adjust to the format in the first match. The moment you open up, you go into a six-month break. But most teams don’t play more than one or two T20Is in a series in any case. So this is not an excuse; when you are out there you have to try to win,” he concluded.