In a rare matchup this World Cup, Bangladesh and Sri Lanka faced off in Delhi on Monday. They limited Sri Lanka to 279 points. In 41.1 overs, they managed to chase down the goal. They performed well enough to move up two spots in the points table and obtain the desired increase in net run-rate.
All of this contributed to the general feeling of sorrow regarding Bangladesh’s World Cup participation.
After Shakib Al Hasan, who was declared Player of the Match after going 2 for 57 and hitting 65 balls for 82 in a third-wicket stand of 169 runs with 90-striker Najmul Hossain Shanto, Bangladesh was disappointed that they had not achieved the goals they had set for themselves in the World Cup. Despite this, they are currently in a position to earn a spot straight in the 2025 Champions Trophy.
After the game against Sri Lanka, Shakib remarked, “It would have been better if we had done that [played like this] in earlier matches.” We would have been in a good position if we had won one or two more games. We had high hopes for this. We let ourselves down, in my opinion. I believed that we were unable to meet the team’s goal, which was based on our collective perception of our abilities. That’s why we’re all disappointed.
Bangladesh won the match thanks to the Shakib and Shanto stand, which was their highest wicket total against Sri Lanka at 41 for 2 in the seventh over.
Shakib stated, “It was a very important partnership.” We always discuss it in the locker room because, particularly in the top tier, we depend on these alliances to win games. If not, we are always fixing damage that is of a lesser order. Our collaboration today won us the match.”
The majority of Bangladesh’s World Cup matches have seen them lose early wickets. Shanto and Shakib, for once, got off to a cautious start before shifting gears. According to Shakib, they had to stay long enough because they understood that the dew in Delhi would be helpful as well.
“We had to regroup after losing two wickets. We are aware of the good wicket. It will relieve a lot of pressure that we have to step up and form a cooperation,” he said. That’s precisely what we did, and since it wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on, we took advantage of our opportunities, counterattacked, and applied significant pressure to them once more. But the dew was really beneficial to us.
“We just needed to bat deep because we knew the ball was going to come at us. We were simply stating that if we bat until the 30th over, we can take the game very near to the finish line when we were in the 17th and 18th over. We can finish it early if one of us stays.”
Shakib stated that Bangladesh’s goal was to win the Champions Trophy, not the World Cup, quickly enough to increase their net run-rate. They actually worked toward that since Shakib was the first to point out that the World Cup standings were related to Champions Trophy qualification.
“When we lost a couple of quick wickets, myself and Shanto were still looking to chase it in 41.2 overs or something that would put us ahead of, I think, a couple of the teams,” Shakib added. That’s what we intended to accomplish. We lost a few wickets trying to accomplish that. However, we are ultimately quite pleased with how we performed.”
Angelo Mathews became the first player in international cricket history to be timed out during the match, which will go down in history. Shakib’s actions have been deemed “obviously disgraceful” by Mathews, and the majority of the response to date has been critical of Bangladesh. Even if their World Cup campaign was a complete failure, the Bangladeshi team would be content that they accomplished something at least.
