Bangladesh batsman Najmul Hossain Shanto said that they opted to repeat the same mindset while batting that they displayed in the recently concluded Bangladesh Premier League, which guided them to seal their first ever T20I victory over the wold champion England at the Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium on Thursday.
With Shanto smacking a 30-ball 50 and Shakib Al Hasan providing the finishing touch with an unbeaten 24-ball 34, the home side cruised to 158-4 with two overs to spare, chasing down a humble 156-6 in their six-wicket win in the opener of the three Twenty20 internationals.
‘We just tried to continue with the momentum from the openers. We stuck to a normal plan and reacted to the ball. We tried to apply the way we batted in the BPL. It was nothing different than that, said Shanto after the match at ZACS.
Following the dismissal of the Tigers opening pair, Liton Das [12 off 10 balls] and Rony Talukdar [21 off 14 balls] Shanto and his debutant partner Towhid Hridoy formed a gusty 39-ball 65 run stand that fueled them to chase the humble total.
Shanto acknowledged that the fearless batting of his fellow colleague inspired him to outshine the English bowlers.
"His approach and intent, in his first international match, gave me a lot of confidence. He never got nervous playing against such a big team. We just batted the way we batted in the BPL, where we had some big partnerships.’
The 24-year-old further revealed that following the ten overs of the England innings, they started believing that they could chase the total as the home side leaked only 76 runs in their final ten overs.
‘The way we made the comeback in the last ten overs (of the England innings), that gave us the confidence. Then we started well with the bat. We knew that two more partnerships would get us close to the win.’
He also believes that the win at the ZACS would vastly boost them to seal their maiden T20I series against the reigning supremos.
‘Winning the first match will give us a lot of confidence, but we must start afresh in the second game. New plans. But the motivation and thinking will change after this game. We should win the series from this position. We have to play well on that particular day.’
The second tie of the series would be held on March 12 at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium, followed by the third and final on March 14 at the same venue.
