PAK vs BAN | Expected a little bit more from the wicket, reveals Mahmudullah Riyad
Bangladesh captain Mahmudullah Riyad voiced his concern over the sluggish pitch for the opening T20 of the series which restricted batsmen from playing their shots. On the other hand, Mahmudullah lavished praise on the openers Naim Sheikh and Tamim Iqbal who were solid at the top of the order.
What was a sight of joy for sore eyes of the Pakistan fans, Pakistan won the series opener against Bangladesh, ending a five-match losing streak in the format in which they are ranked at the top. The hosts flattened Bangladesh by 5 wickets in Lahore as Shoaib Malik starred with an impressive half century.
Bangladesh skipper Mahmudullah Riyad voiced his concern over the state of the pitch in the series opener, stating that he felt that the pitch was slow and hindered batsmen to get going from the word go, which led to the visitors to fall short by 10-15 runs.
"I expected a little bit better from the wicket because once the ball got older, we found it difficult to score runs. The ball did not come on to the bat as we expected," Mahmudullah was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz. "It was difficult for the later batters to come and hit straight away. Once the ball got old, it was difficult to bat. The ball was holding on the wicket and the batsmen struggled to get underneath. We were short by a good 10-15 runs."
Bangladesh openers Naim Sheikh (43) and Tamim Iqbal (39) added 71 runs in the first half of the game to provide a solid platform. But the visitors weren't able to finish off well, as they crept past 140 thanks to the skipperâs brisk 14-ball 19. Mahmudullah believes that they need to learn how their openers played while lauding the Pakistan bowlers for their efforts.
"I believe the way we batted in the powerplay was spot on. Tamim and Naim batted quite well. But as the ball kept losing its shine, it was getting difficult. In the middle overs, we lost two wickets in an over, that too of a set batsman. From that point onwards, if we were to drag the run-rate higher, we would have needed some big overs which yielded some 15-17 runs.
"I think that was one of the areas which we lacked in. Credit goes to the Pakistani bowlers as well. They nailed their yorkers and mixed up their pace quite well. We will keep these things in mind and try to get better in the next game," added Mahmudullah.