Have the confidence and belief to win the series: Mashrafe Mortaza

Mashrafe Mortaza, the captain of the Bangladesh cricket team saw his side go down in the second ODI against a resolute Afghanistan side. While many have given the Afghans credit for some persistent cricket, Bangladesh remains to be the stronger team on paper. Mortaza, who has become Bangladesh’s most successful captain in recent times, has backed his side to go ahead and claim a win in the final ODI to win the series.

Speaking ahead of the start of the match, Mortaza said that his team had the belief and the confidence to clinch a win in the series. He also went on to add in that disappointment and setback of the loss did not mean that they would not work towards securing a series win. He also said that should Afghanistan clinch a win, they would be more than deserving winners.

“We definitely have the confidence and belief to win the series,” Mortaza stated on Saturday (October 1). “I don’t think that one defeat will end all the work that we have done and all our achievements so far. We were all obviously disappointed but that doesn’t mean that we have forgotten all the good work that we have done. It was a bad day. If we think about that when we get on the field it will be difficult for us, so we are trying to get on the field with a free mentality.”

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“[If they win the series] I will feel that they are deserving winners. In the past, we won many matches and people called them upsets, but we didn’t accept them as upsets. It is not right. They should definitely get the credit.

Mashrafe Mortaza also added that they did not take their opponents lightly courtesy of the latter’s associate nation status. “We never took them as an easy opponent, which was clear after the first game. In the second match, our batting collapsed. At one point we recovered, but still, we kept losing wickets. We couldn’t play our best game.”

“We have all discussed this in the dressing room. If someone can score a 150, then it becomes a big deal for his career. Kumar Sangakkara has scored so many 150s and 200s against us. I am sure that our batsmen aren’t taking them lightly. Maybe there was a bit of a break in concentration.

“We are all mature individuals. If you see the top five batsmen in our line-up, at least one of them scored big in each game in the last 18 months. But when they don’t, we will always get a low score.”

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