DHAKA -Bangladesh youngster Afif Hossain believes New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi made the ultimate difference in the first T20 game, which the Kiwis won by 66-run to take 1-0 lead in the three-match series.
Sodhi claimed 4-28 as Bangladesh was restricted to 144-8, in reply of New Zealand’s 210-3. Sodhi did the most damage, dismissing Soumya Sarkar (5) and Mohammad Mithun (4) in one over and then he ruined Bangladesh’s all hopes of chasing the big target by removing skipper Mahmudullah Riyad for 11 in his next over.
“Sodhi pushed us to the back foot with two wickets in one over. That made the eventual difference,” Afif said in a recorded video message sent by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB) today.
“After he took back-to-back wickets, our plan was to target other bowlers and played him safely. But we couldn’t do that properly.”
Afif said if they couldn’t loss wickets in cluster, they could have chased the target as the size of the ground was not big enough.
“Since the size of the ground was smaller, I think this target could be chased. For batting, the wicket was good enough. What made New Zealand batsmen successful is that they could utilize the smaller side of the field well. If we couldn’t loss back to back wickets, we definitely could have chased the target,” Afif remarked.
Afif who scored team’s highest 45 in first T20 however believes they had some positive things in the match, which could help them to win the next match.
‘After coming here, it’s the first time I had got an opportunity to play a match and spent sometimes in the crease. I am happy for that and hope it will help me in the coming matches,” Afif said.
“We had good start to the match. Naim Sheikh gave us good start. We had two debutants in the match-Nasum bowled well. So we had some positive things which, I hope, will help us in the next matches,” he concluded.BSS
