Playing Ireland in Ireland is always difficult, says Mashrafe Mortaza

Team Bangladesh is still searching for their first win on the Ireland tour. The tri series started off on a poor note for them with their opening encounter against the hosts being washed out. In the next game against New Zealand, they were beaten by the Kiwi batting might. Despite two poor outings, the skipper Mashrafe Mortaza is confident of turning the tables in the matches that follow.

Going into the series, the Bangladesh team had a very good chance of escalating to the 6th spot in the ICC ODI rankings if they would have managed to win all their four matches in the series. However, that does not seem possible now. Also, after losing against the Kiwis, the team had only 36 hours to regroup before they take on Ireland in their next game. Mashrafe Mortaza feels there is no room for any negative thoughts.

“It means we don’t have time to think negative thoughts after this loss, we have to regroup and take positive things into the game against Ireland. Playing Ireland in Ireland is always difficult, so we have to be careful and not make the mistakes we made in the first match,” quoted Mashrafe Mortaza as per the quotes in News18.

Fine tuning the efforts

He further noted that the game against New Zealand could have been their way as well. The batsmen had shown good application and three players got going in the match. The team now needs to correct those mistakes and ensure that the good starts are converted to bigger and better match-winning scores.

“We are not far away, three batsmen got in and got out and next time we must correct the mistakes. We have to take wickets early, I didn’t start well but Shakib (Al Hasan) did well and Mustifa (Mustafizur, who had the best figures of two for 33) bowled well,” conceded the Bangladesh skipper.