New Delhi: Bangladesh wicket-keeper batsman Mushfiqur Rahim said he had learnt his lesson from the World Twenty20 defeat against Bangalore as that helped him to keep his composure till the end in the three-match Twenty20 series opener in Delhi on Sunday.
As they said the pain of one-run defeat would never be erased, had they not beat India at India’s soil in their life, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mahmudullah Riyad didn’t wait too long. It took them just three years to permanently delete the ill-fated night and at the same time, gave them the first victory against India on India’s soil in any format of cricket.
Mushfiqur was the architect of the victory. He buried the nightmare of Bangalore with an epic 43 ball-60 not out and thereby sealed Bangladesh’s first T20 victory over India in the first of three-match series at Arun Jaitley Stadium in New Delhi on Sunday.
Fittingly Mushfiqur Rahim got Mahmudullah in his company when Bangladesh overhauled India’s 148-6, making 154-3 with three balls spare to clinch the memorable victory.
Mahmudullah was Mushfiqur’s partner-in-crime in that ill-fated night in Bangalore in 2016, when both of them played manic or glory shot (as the cricket pundits said) to gift their wickets in consecutive two deliveries off Hardik Pandya as Bangladesh failed to score two runs in three balls to concede a painful one-run defeat.
‘’I think we have learnt our lesson (from that Bangalore loss )and were determined not to lose our composure and mind if we can take the game close,’’ said Mushfiqur after guiding his team to victory against India.
“We were very close against them on many occasions but could not win in the end so we me and Mahmudullah bhai was saying that someone need to stay till the end if we want to beat them,’’ he said.
Mushfiqur Rahim hit a brilliant 43 ball-60 not out as Bangladesh clinched their maiden T20 victory over India, recording a seven-wicket win in the first of the three-match series at Arun Jaitley Stadium on Sunday.
Mushfiqur who was dropped on 38, when Krunal Pandya shelled his catch at deep midwicket, took Bangladesh closer to the victory with 18-run in the penultimate over, including four straight four boundaries.Bangladesh needed just four runs to win the game in the last over and captain Mahmudullah fittingly sealed the deal with a six over deep midwicket to record the side’s memorable victory in ninth attempt.
Mushfiqur said that they could play fearless cricket as they had nothing to lose against their mighty opponent. ‘’We were underdogs when we came here,’’ said Mushfiqur.
‘’As we had nothing to lose we played with free mind and that helped us to play fearless cricket,’’ he concluded.
