Bangladesh Stand-in skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto emphasized that the wide delivery that was intended for the Indian batting maestro Virat Kohli, while he was on the verge of his century was an unintentional one. The 34-year-old hit a six off left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed in the 42nd over to finish the things for the Indian team in Pune.
With 19 runs needed to win and exactly that many for Kohli to reach his milestone, the batter decided to deal in boundaries in order to reach his hundred-run mark. The Player of the Match was seen turning down opportunities for easy singles to maintain a strike and Nasun Ahmed bowled a ball down leg, which was not given wide by the on-field umpire.
Speaking at the post-match press conference, Najmul Hossain Shanto said that there were plans to bowl wide balls to Virat Kohli, who was nearing a milestone stone in the game, and lauded their opener Tanzid Tamim for playing an impactful knock for the team at the top of the order and urged him to keep up his performance for the remaining games.
“No, no. There was no such plan. It was a normal plan. No bowler had the intention to bowl wide ball. We tried to play a proper game. What was the other one? Tamim batted very well. I think it didn’t go well for him for the last few innings but the way he batted today was very good. But the team expects a bigger innings from him. So, I hope he will play a bigger innings in the future if the opportunity comes,” Najmul Hossain Shanto said.
Virat Kohli and KL Rahul decided to ensure that the former took the most of the strike and got a century so that India could continue to float. When Kohli thrillingly reached his 48th ODI ton and scored the game-winning six runs, turning the match to be one an entertaining one at the end.
I Think We Could Not Bat Well In The Middle Overs – Najmul Hossain Shanto
Najmul Hossain Shanto admitted that their side were poor in the middle overs of the game, which eventually led to the team’s failure in the game, and reckons that the middle orders failed to take responsibility giving away a couple of soft dismissals.
“I think we could not bat well in the middle overs. It would have been a different ball game if the openers batted a bit longer. A couple of wickets were soft dismissals. The wicket was good, but the batters failed to take responsibility,” Najmul Hossain Shanto added.
Bangla Tigers suffered their third straight defeat in the World Cup after winning their game against Afghanistan and the Bangladesh side were completely outplayed in those three games which could haunt their chances of qualifying for the Semifinals of the ongoing ODI World Cup.
