Buoyed with winning the first two matches Bangladesh look forward to a third consecutive victory against New Zealand on Sunday and seal the five-match T20I series.
Taijul Islam, Bangladesh’s left-arm spinner, said they are looking forward to keeping their process accurate in the remaining matches of the series.
“We won the maiden match of the series easily, but the next match was so tough,” Taijul told reporters on Saturday. “We had to play till the last over of the match on Friday. Mustafizur (Rahman) bowled really well. We now have to win another match to seal the series. If we can keep our process right, it won’t be tough to do that.”
Also read: Tigers do enough to see off Latham's Black Caps in 2nd T20I
Before the ongoing series, Bangladesh beat Australia 4-1 in th five-match T20I home series. That was a great source of confidence for the Tigers. Taijul believed that the recent success of the Bangladesh team came by riding on that confidence.
“Everyone is confident, everyone tries his best to do well and fulfil his duties. I think this is the main reason behind our success,” Taijul further told the media after an optional training session on Saturday.
In the first match of the series, New Zealand were bowled out only for 60— their lowest in the format, and the lowest by any team in the format against Bangladesh. Bangladesh all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan had said that the wicket was tougher than the wickets that were used against Australia. The Bangladesh cricketing fraternity believes the wicket was unreasonably friendly to the spinners.
“A spin-friendly wicket doesn’t ensure that you take the field and get 6-7 wickets. You have to bowl at the right areas to get wickets and do well. You cannot do well relying on the wicket only,” Taijul said.
Despite being a part of the limited-overs team of Bangladesh, Taijul played his last T20I match more than a year ago. The left-arm spinners said he is upbeat to do well if he gets a chance in the future.
Also read: ICC Men’s T20 World Cup 2021: Five Potential Replacements of Tamim Iqbal
In the four-run win on Friday, Bangladesh’s biggest threat was Tom Latham, the New Zealand captain, who posted 65 and brought the Blackcaps so close. New Zealand batsman Rachin Ravindra said Latham’s innings was a lesson to the other batsmen of the team.
“The way he was working on singles and hitting the boundaries, and looked like he really knew his options, which is something we all can take and learn from,” Rachin told reporters on Saturday after an optional training session.
After winning the first two games, Bangladesh are placed at number six on the ICC T20I teams’ ranking. The Tigers will see further improvement if they can finish winning more games in this series.