Bangladesh recently defeated England in consecutive T20 matches to claim the series and create history against the World Champions. Mehidy Hasan was the man of the moment for the hosts as he finished with 4/12 with the ball completely rattling the Three Lions in the 2nd T20I. This win is historic because now Bangladesh have now defeated every single team in a series since they started playing international cricket.
His outstanding bowling helped the hosts restrict England at only 117 and then scored 20 crucial runs on a tricky surface helping Bangladesh win the match and the series.
He spoke about the series triumph and how every victory gives them joy that they are representing Bangladesh. “Look every international series is important and it makes us happy go win against every team. You cannot say that you feel good beating this team or that team. Like you cannot say you feel good beating Australia or New Zealand because we have the same feeling beating every team. Because at the end of the day which team won? Bangladesh,” Mehidy said, quoted by Cricbuzz.
However he admitted that beating big teams is a different feeling. He shared how beating England was always that something they aimed for a long time. But now with the win, the circle has been completed for Bangladesh cricket.
“We all won and this is a matter of joy and everyone is happy. Certainly beating the big team gives us joy and we won against every team but one team that we could not reach and win a series was England. Today we are happy with the T20I series win over England as now we can say we have beaten every team and won series,” the left-arm spinner added.
Mehidy Hasan picked important wickets of Moeen Ali, Sam Curran, Chris Jordan and Chris Woakes. Ben Duckett top scored for England with 28 whereas Phil Salt scored 25 at the top of the order as England were bowled out for 117. Duckett and Salt were the only players to cross the 20-run mark.
While chasing, the hosts also lost wickets, but Najmul Shanto played a very responsible knock as he scored 46 and steered his team to victory.
Mehidy Hasan has grown from strength to strength and he is happy to repay the faith shown on him. He feels that the current crop of players are very good players and they look to stay positive in all situations as they feel that staying positive will help them win matches as they trust their capabilities.
“I am happy to repay the faith that was kept on me by the team management. We are better side, we have very good team and we have some very good players and we are not thinking about how to win the match we are thinking about staying positive and come up with better cricket because we are confident that if we can follow that, the result will fall in place,” Mehidy concluded.
With the ODI World Cup coming up, this win in limited overs cricket over England will boost Bangladesh’s morale. The conditions may be similar in India and Bangladesh will be hoping to build on this as they look to achieve greater heights.
They will play the last T20I at Mirpur on Tuesday as the hosts will aim for a whitewash, whereas Jos Buttler men will be looking to salvage some pride.
