Mushfiq explains Tamim’s century celebration

Mushfiqur Rahim has cleared up Tamim Iqbal’s celebration after scoring the century against Pakistan in the first ODI in Mirpur.

The Tigers won the match in comprehensive fashion by 79 runs after Tamim and Mushfiq scored dazzling centuries to power the hosts to 329 for 6 on Friday.

It was Tamim’s first century in over two years. The left-hander cracked two boundaries off Saeed Ajmal in the 35th over to reach his fifth ODI hundred.

He then put his bat down, took off his gloves and faced the galleries to gesture with hands suggesting ‘less talk’.

“… I think anyone will understand because in last four-five months people have been talking about him… Any player may go through some bad times,” Mushfiq said at the post-match press conference.

“In the World Cup, many good players couldn’t even score 200 runs (in total). He played a crucial innings against Scotland.

“If we had not got a good start, we could’ve have not won the game. And if we lost the match, we wouldn’t have reached the quarter-finals.”

Tamim played a solid knock of 95 against Scotland in the pool phase of the World Cup that led Bangladesh to their first win in the competition chasing over 300.

Mushfiq was all praises for the opener.

“I believe that very few batsmen like him have emerged and very few will come in the future. People will criticise.

“At this point in time if everyone says - yes Tamim has done this - then it will be good for him. So the celebration was great, I liked it.”

Mushfiq advised Tamim to not take too many risks after reaching fifty.

“I told him ‘we will play till at least 45 overs’. I tried to remind him that today the wicket is such that only set batsmen can score a lot. 
“He played a very calculative, mature innings. I am surprised that I got the Man of the Match award.”

Stand-in skipper Shakib Al Hasan also acclaimed Tamim’s knock.

“The way he built his innings it was brilliant. He was under a bit of pressure but it never showed in his batting,” Shakib said the press conference.

“The way they both (Tamim and Mushfiq) batted was a turning point in the match.”