Bangladesh captain Mashrafe eyes Pakistan whitewash after taking series

Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza has set his sight on a clean sweep in the ODIs after securing the series against Pakistan on Sunday with a seven-wicket victory.

Sports Correspondentbdnews24.com
Published : 19 April 2015, 08:59 PM
Updated : 19 April 2015, 08:59 PM

The Tigers put up a dominating all-round show in the second ODI to maul the tourists after a 79-run win two days back at the Sher-e-Bangla National Cricket Stadium in Mirpur.

Mashrafe and Co were enthralled having beaten the 1992 World Cup champions twice within three days.

But during celebrations on Sunday, Bangladesh coach Chandika Hathurusingha took his time inspecting the wicket with Gamini de Silva, the curator.

Chasing a modest 240 runs to win, Bangladesh romped to a resounding victory with 71 balls to spare.

Mashrafe is content with his side playing two almost perfect matches.

“The 3-0 equation has been derived now. I said yesterday (Saturday), we were focussed on today’s match,” Mashrafe told reporters at the post-match press conference.

“We will definitely try to give our best in the last match. If we play the way we did in the first two matches, we will definitely have chances.”

Pakistan were in a sink-or-swim situation in the second ODI. But the new-look side’s batsmen once again failed to fire as Bangladesh bowlers put up a good show.

Mashrafe is buoyant after two straight wins.

“Maybe they scored 20 runs more (than expected)… But 240 runs is nothing in modern cricket. We had the confidence that we would be able to chase this quite easily if we don’t lose wickets.”

Mashrafe also gave credit to his bowlers for restricting Pakistan to the modest total. 

But he thought there was room for improvement in bowling for himself and Shakib Al Hasan.