- By Himanshu Badola
- Fri, 01 Sep 2023 10:25 AM (IST)
- Source:JND
Najmul Hossain Shanto put up a lone fight with the bat against Sri Lanka in their opening game of Asia Cup 2023 in Pallekele on Thursday.
His innings was the only positive for Shakib Al Hasan's side who suffered a disappointing five-wicket defeat with 11 overs remaining in the match.
Najmul said that they should have batted better than what they did against the hosts.
A disastrous batting performance saw Bangladesh give away the win easily in the Group B encounter of the ongoing continental championship.
Bangladesh after opting to bat first, put up an ordinary total of 164 as they were bowled out in 42.4 overs with Najmul making the highest score of 89. Sri Lanka chased down the total with relative ease, reaching 165/5 with 66 balls to spare.
Najmul was critical about the performance of the batting unit but also pointed towards the wicket and said it wasn't an easy one to bat on. "Actually the wicket is always good here but today that was not the case but these things are not in our hands and we have to play our game well. But we expected sporting wicket in this kind of big tournament," Nazmul told reporters.
"I think we looked to score around 250 to 260. With the new ball, the batting was quite easy but after the ball (got old) it was quite hard. It was not that easy a wicket. We tried to score at least 250, that was the initial plan.
"After seeing the wicket we felt we should bat and the decision taken by the captain and coach, we all agreed to that. We did not bat well and I won't say that the wicket was easy but what I feel is that we could have batted better," he said. adding that he doesn't regret missing out on the hundred but would have felt better if he could batted till the last.
Najmul played 122 balls for his fighting knock before he was dismissed in the 42nd over as he regretted not playing till the end. "I don't have any regret, the only regret I have is that if I could bat for 50 overs it would have been better.
The 25-year-old remains hopeful for his team to make a comeback in the tournament and qualify for the Super Four, adding that they are confident about beating Afghanistan. "We are not thinking about India and Pakistan now. At the moment we are thinking about the Afghanistan game and we have to take preparation after reaching Pakistan and we are hoping to have a good game.
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"We won against them in the last T20 series though we didn't do well in the ODIs and we are not thinking about the past. We believe if we can play to our potential we will have a good game against Afghanistan. I think we don't need to think very far rather we should focus on how to do well against Afghanistan."
Bangladesh will take on Afghanistan in a must-win game for them in Lahore on September 3.