Bangladesh’s Mahmudullah said on Wednesday that Tigers have the ability to beat New Zealand but failed to do so as they could not perform as a combined unit.
Tigers reached Tuaranga on Wednesday to play remaining two Twenty20 internationals of the ongoing three-match series after losing the opening game by six wickets at Napier.
During the opening Twenty20 international, Mahmudullah rescued Tigers from all sorts of embarrassment with a half-century as it helped them to post a reasonable 141-8 after being reduced to 30-4.
‘We need to play as a unit,’ Mahmudullah told reporters. ‘We are lacking a combined effort and due to that we are unable to beat them.
‘We have the ability to beat New Zealand only if we can play as a unit and now we are focusing to come up with that in the upcoming games,’ he said.
Mahmudullah was a pale shadow of his former self in the three-match one-day international series played prior to the Twenty20 internationals but made a timely comeback to provide some sort of solidity in their batting.
Mahmudullah said that he was relieved to get some runs as he could not make any contribution during the ODI’s.
‘I could not do anything in the one-dayers. Naturally it feels good to stay at the crease for some time and score some runs,’ he said.
Mahmudullah insisted that the Tigers need to grab their chances if they want to beat the hosts.
New Zealand made to pay them dearly in all their matches after they spilled their opportunities.
‘In every match we came close but still it’s not good enough because we failed to hold on to the opportunities that came to our way,’ said Mahmudullah.
‘Our team is looking forward not to repeat it when we take on them as we feel we can change our fortune by grabbing those chances,’ he said.
Tigers had a rest day as they travelled 290 kilometers through bus to arrive from Napier and enjoyed a two-hour long boat journey over the lake Taupo witnessing the beauty of Huka Falls.
Tigers will play the last two Twenty20 internationals at Mount Maunganui respectively on January 6 and 8.