T20 World Cup 2021 | Atmosphere in the dressing room will be better after win against Oman, says Shakib Al Hasan

In a must-win game against Oman on Tuesday, Mohammad Naim, replacing the experienced Soumya Sarkar, turned it on with the bat, so too did Shakib Al Hasan, before bowlers put an all-round show to complete the task.

The win wasn’t as comfortable though as a 26-run margin would suggest. Oman had Bangladesh 29/2 at the end of the powerplay, and if not for the dropped catches, the target could perhaps have been much less than 154. Later, Jatinder Singh (40 off 33) had the home side well-placed in the chase, before Shakib’s decisive intervention.

"I think the win is certainly relieving and I feel the atmosphere in the dressing room will be better after this win," said Shakib, who received the Player of the Match award after a 29-ball 43 and returns of 3/28.

Shakib credited Mohammad Saifuddin and Mahedi Hasan, who conceded just 30 runs in eight overs between them, while bagging a wicket each. He admitted that catching was difficult, on a day when both teams shelled a few.

"Holding a catch at night is difficult because the light is low and when the ball goes over the light it becomes difficult to keep an eye on the ball and there is another thing that the ball seems to travel fast. We cannot give excuses as we have done enough training here so we should be used to it."

"When we left the country we dreamt of achieving something big and we still hold on to that dream. If we had said that we have come here to lose every match would you have taken that well? Dreams cannot be changed every now and then."

“Shakib and Naim batted brilliantly, they had a good partnership and that took us to 150-plus. But we should have done better with the new ball, bowled a lot of wides. We need to see those areas and correct them. I think our death bowling was going well. In the middle part we brought the game back. But the first six overs - batting and bowling - we need to improve.”