We can play well anywhere in the world: Mortaza

Bangladesh are tigers not only in their home turf, they have the skills and temperament to do well in any corner of the world, skipper Mashrafe Bin Mortaza believes. Bangladesh are defeating big teams in One-Day Internationals (ODI) regularly now. Cricket pundits, however, doubt that they can perform as well they have only in their own territory, reports bdnews24.com.

“You see, everyone has to struggle abroad. The conditions in Australia and New Zealand were not easy for us but we did well in the World Cup. Everyone of us has that confidence. This team can play their best anywhere in the world. We can succeed in any condition,” Mashrafe said.

Bangladesh were 197/5 at one stage, chasing 318 on Wednesday and needed to score at seven runs per over. But they faltered after losing Sabbir Rahman and Nasir Hossain. Mashrafe said the wicket was very good for a 318-run chase. “We were ahead of India until the 35th over. We had only lost two wickets more. We had no problem chasing the target. We could have scored even 90 runs in the last 10 overs if we had four-five wickets in hand,” he said.

The series win against India is one of the most glorious achievements in Bangladesh’s cricket history, but for Mashrafe it is the best. He had led Bangladesh to whitewash of Zimbabwe and Pakistan as well. But he said the win against India was the best as far as he was concerned.

“If you leave aside the achievement in the World Cup, this is the best. A win against them, I’ll say this is the best,” he said. The captain said Bangladesh achieved more than they had dreamed of with the series win. “And we will learn from what we’ve lost. We’ll be able to handle such situation in the future,” Mortaza said.

‘Banglawash pressure got to us’Mortaza feels the expectation of a whitewash backfired for Bangladesh because it put the team under extra pressure in the third ODI.“No one wants to lose any match — much less the way we lost,” Mashrafe said. He believes, instead of releasing the stress, winning the series with a match to spare put them under more weight with the idea of series sweep.

“The pressure we have at the start of a series rises before the last match. The idea of ‘Banglawash’ is raised after winning one or two matches. We could have played this match more positively,” said the pacer.