Mortaza plays down Bangladesh’s chances
Mashrafe Mortaza, the Bangladesh One-Day International captain, has been at the helm of several notable accomplishments, the most famous being the quarterfinal appearance in the ICC Cricket World Cup 2015, closely followed by home series wins against South Africa, Pakistan and India.
In the ICC Champions Trophy 2017, Bangladesh has had some fortune going its way, and if it can make its own and get another helping hand from England, it could well reach the semi-final. To do that, though, it must first beat New Zealand at the Cardiff Wales Stadium on Friday.
Mortaza played down his side’s chances ahead of the key Group A clash. “Everyone knows that we can't win with our usual game,” he said on match-eve. “If we play extraordinary cricket, only then can we beat them. Before coming here, we knew it was always going to be tough. But if we create chances, we can beat any team on our day.”
Warming to his theme of not creating additional pressure on his team, Mortaza said, “If we can finish well tomorrow, it'll be really helpful for us as a group. We are all excited. We know our limitations. We know our strengths as well. If we keep thinking about our weaknesses, then we'll get into a negative mindset. So all we are focussing on how we can play to our strengths and deliver a win. This is all part of the learning curve.”
Mortaza indicated that Bangladesh would be looking to take the game on, and go with five bowlers, explaining that it had revisited that theory in the first match of the ICC Champions Trophy 2017 because it had been rolled over for 84 by India in the warm-up match.
“We have to think positive, for sure,” he said. “For that, if we need to pick five -- normally we play with five bowlers all the time. Yes, first match, we were thinking because in the India practice match, we got out for 84, so we had to rethink a lot of things. But we can't just go on the negative way. We have to think positive, and obviously we have to make our combination accordingly. We have to score, as well as get them all out.”
On the question of how Bangladesh would counter Kane Williamson’s splendid form, Mortaza pointed out that Tamim Iqbal too was in terrific form, but being in form didn’t guarantee runs on your next visit to the crease. “The bowlers have a plan with the coaching staff, so we have to stick to it,” he said. “The form he's going, it is unbelievable. But if you look on our side, I think Tamim is in great form too. It doesn't mean that Tamim will come in and score tomorrow as well.
“But yes, he is in great form but we cannot focus only in on Williamson. They have some players like (Martin) Guptill who can change the game. We have to think all of their batters as a bowling group, and obviously our batters have to think about their bowlers.”
Mortaza also reposed faith in his core group of Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan and Tamim to deliver, alongside Mahmudullah. “In these sort of conditions, it is always difficult because the ball can move early. But the way Tamim batted, it was brilliant. If you look at our batting order, there is Mushfiqur who scored against England, he batted really well. Shakib had a very good start against Australia but unfortunately got out which we didn't expect. And yes, we have Mahmudullah, who was in great form in the tri-series in Ireland (which also included a depleted New Zealand side). He had two 50s and good 30s, 40s. Hopefully this time, he will make up. I know if we need it, we will do something.”
Mortaza was also not worried about Mustafizur Rahman, his strike bowler, not having any wickets so far. “He's very young. When the surface assists his cutters, he becomes a more potent bowler,” he explained. “Now he'll have to learn how to bowl on these kinds of surfaces. When he comes to play in the 2019 World Cup, this experience will help. He'll be a much better bowler then.”
The strategy for Mortaza was simple – go hard to try and win the match, and forget the rain and other equations. “There's no point worrying about rain. There's no point thinking about the semifinals right now,” he said. “We have to get a convincing win and then Australia need to lose to England. What is need is to we focus on the game tomorrow.
“The way we have been playing for the last two, three years, there's a lot of matches we have won and also a few matches we should have won but couldn't. But it's still our focus to win every match and we’ll play at our best. We know that if we can create chances, obviously we have to grab them, and play hard.”