An unbeaten 51-run partnership between Mehidy Hasan Miraz and Mustafizur Rahman led the Bangladesh team to win the match against India on Sunday.
With the help of the architect of the victory, Player of the Match, Mehidy Hasan Bangladesh fought their way back and made a memorable victory. In the ODI series, Bangladesh took the lead by 1-0.
“Maybe people will call me pagol (mad) but I had the honest belief that we could win. I only focused on winning the game. I kept telling myself that I can do this. I thought I’d score 15 runs with Ebadot, 20 runs with Hasan Mahmud, and the remaining 15-20 runs with Mustafiz. But two quick wickets meant that it was a do-or-die situation with the last wicket remaining. I had to take calculated risks. Mustafiz’s words really stayed with me. It gave me more belief,” Mehidy said.
Talking about his performance Mehidy said, the words of his batting partner gave him confidence.
“Mustafizur told me, “You don’t worry about me. I will stop the ball at my end. I will take balls on the body, but I won’t get out,” Mehidy said.
Mehidy further said, “If I thought that we would lose or we won’t be able to get the remaining runs, it wouldn’t have worked out like this. It was definitely a do-or-die situation. There was no problem getting out trying to hit out. When we needed 50 runs, I took the chances. It came off.”
Talking about Kuldeep Sen and Deepak Chahar Mehidy said, “If I thought that we would lose or we won’t be able to get the remaining runs, it wouldn’t have worked out like this. It was definitely a do-or-die situation. There was no problem getting out trying to hit out. When we needed 50 runs, I took the chances. It came off. But when we needed 14 or 10 runs, then I got really excited. We lost a lot of close matches, but Mustafiz kept giving me encouragement. He told me, ‘don’t hurry, don’t try to hit a six. You bat along the ground, we will get the runs’. I was very clear with my game plan. I knew exactly what I wanted to do. I think that helped out also.”
Moreover, Mehidy talked about his partner on the other end and said, “Mustafiz is my good friend. He supported me a lot. One thing that stood out was his confidence.”
“He kept telling me not to worry about him. A batter would always worry about the tailender. If he gets out, it’s all over. But his approach allowed me to shape my game plan. Who to attack, when to attack. I didn’t go after every ball. I did sky a couple, but they couldn’t take the chances. You are bound to get out if you are trying to hit every ball. Calculative risk helped out,” Mehindy stated.
However, in the three-match ODI series, Miraz has helped Bangladesh take a 1-0 lead. Rohit Sharma-led side needs to win both matches to win the series.