Bangladesh focus on Mashrafe’s T20I farewell in last Sri Lanka game

Bangladesh go into the last Twenty20 game against Sri Lanka with the series at stake but the priority of giving Mashrafe Bin Mortaza a victorious send-off has overshadowed any other concern they may have.

The second T20 International is set for 7:30pm [BdST] start on Thursday at the R Premadasa Stadium in Colombo, the same venue where Mashrafe announced his decision to retire from the format two days ago.

The Tigers did not practice on Wednesday. Youngster Mosaddek Hossain spoke to the reporters at Taj Samudra Hotel.

“I’d personally say, we will play the second T20 only for Mashrafe. We’d want to give him a victorious send-off by winning the game,” he said.

After Mashrafe’s unexpected announcement in the toss interview, his team lost the game by six wicket to be left trailing the two-match series 1-0.

“While a team rejoices after winning a match, after a defeat they go through the same sort of sadness. It was similar for us after losing the last match,” Mosaddek, who scored an unbeaten 34 in the match, said.

Both the Test and ODI series ended in 1-1 draws. Sri Lanka victory in the first T20 leaves Bangladesh to fight for another identical draw.

“After losing the first match I can’t say we’ll win. We have one match ahead of us and we’ll try to draw the series by winning it.”

In the Test series, Bangladesh lost the first game at Galle but bounced back to win the second game in Colombo.

The 21-year-old Mosaddek thinks Bangladesh can win their last match of the month-long tour if they stay positive.