Indian captain Rohit Sharma admitted they were not able to post enough runs on the board after losing the first ODI against Bangladesh by one wicket at the Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka on Sunday. India was skittled out for a paltry score of 186 runs after Litton Das won the toss and decided to bowl first.
The visitors kept losing wickets at regular intervals, which led to their downfall. In fact, India was 152-4 at one stage but slipped to 156-8 in a matter of 11 balls.
KL Rahul top-scored for India with a fine knock of 73 runs but the rest of the batters failed to contribute. On the other hand, the Indian bowling unit was right on the money and kept Bangladesh under pressure in the run-chase.
In fact, India was in a shoo-in position as Bangladesh was reduced to 136-9, and thus needed another 51 runs for the victory. However, Mehidy Hasan came up with a counter-attacking knock of an unbeaten 39-ball 38 to take his team to a memorable win.
Hasan added 51 runs for the 10th wicket with Mustafizur Rahman, which is Bangladesh’s second highest last-wicket alliance. The right-hander had the rub of the green on his side as he was dropped on 15 by KL Rahul.
Rohit Sharma feels they need to buckle up with the bat in the next match to keep the series alive.
The Indian skipper said in the post-match presentation, “It was a very close game. We did pretty well to come back into that position. We didn’t bat well. 184 wasn’t good enough, but we bowled pretty well and they held their nerve in the end. If you look back at how we bowled right from ball one – of course, we would have loved to bowl better at the end – but we bowled pretty well for 40 overs and took wickets.”
He added, “We just didn’t have enough runs. Another 25-30 runs would have helped. We were looking at 240-250 after the 25-over mark. When you keep losing wickets it is difficult. We need to learn and understand how to play on such wickets. No excuses for us because we are used to these wickets. I don’t really know how much they can improve in a couple of practice sessions. I feel the genes are there and it’s only about handling pressure. I am sure these guys will learn and we look forward to the next game. Hopefully we can change things around. We know exactly what we need to do in these conditions.”
The second ODI will be played at the same venue of Shere Bangla National Stadium, Dhaka on Wednesday.
