'It was a 330-340 wicket': Hridoy bemoans batters failing to make starts count

Towhid Hridoy's innings of 96 not out may have helped Bangladesh post what looked like a competitive total of 286-7 but Sri Lanka ended up chasing it down with three wickets and 17 balls to spare in the 2nd ODI at Chattogram's Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury stadium on Saturday.

After the match, the right-handed batter spoke to the media about his innings and Bangladesh's performance and felt Bangladesh were quite a few runs short in the end. 

"I thought it was a 330-340 wicket. If our set batters could have carried their innings longer, then it would have been a different scenario."

Hridoy's innings was a mixed bag where he started slow and despite accelerating in the end, never really got going to his fluent best: "We were losing wickets back-to-back and in my mind, I wanted stay till the end of the innings. If we had more batters left at the other end, the runs I scored early in my innings would have come at a faster rate."

The Sri Lankan batters Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka put on a 185-run record partnership for the fourth wicket in the run chase.

It was Sri Lanka's highest-ever fourth wicket partnership in their ODI cricket history and that guided them to victory despite some late jitters.

Hridoy wanted to give the visitors credit for the way they built that record partnership but also explained that batters like Soumya Sarkar (68 runs off 66 balls) and captain Najmul Hossain Shanto (40 from 39 balls) needed to carry on and score big and that proved to be the difference between the two sides.

"We have to give credit to the Sri Lankan batters (Pathum Nissanka and Charith Asalanka) and the way they batted. Our bowlers bowled well in general. I think if my partnership with Soumya (Sarkar) and (Najmul Hossain) Shanto was a bit bigger, it would have been better for us." 

The U-19 World Cup winner has had a mixed series so far with scores of 8, 32*, and 0 in the three T20Is before this ODI series and with a score of 3 in the first ODI.

As a result, he expressed that he was happy to be among the runs and had no regrets over not getting three figures as he was just one boundary away from that milestone. 

"Whatever I scored, I'm grateful for it. No qualms over not getting a hundred. Say, I could have gotten out in the first ball today. I didn't get runs in the last match. Same happened in the T20I series as well. My plan is to always bat carry the innings for as long as possible if I get a start and get set."

One of the areas the 23-year-old batters seems to struggle with his playing on the front foot on the off side, and it's an area where opposition bowlers targeted him to keep him quiet early on in his innings and he said he's working on getting better in those areas.

"I have a few areas where I need to develop my game. Not just me, every player in world cricket has areas where they can improve. So in the practice sessions I try to work on those areas so that I can improve myself," Hridoy explained. 

He was batting on 38 from 60 balls when the last recognised batter Mehidy Hasan Miraz got out and Bangladesh were at risk of being all-out at 189-6 after 36 overs.

From there, Hridoy formed two crucial partnerships - 47 from 62 balls with Tanzim Hasan Sakib and 50* from just 23 balls with Taskin Ahmed - to take Bangladesh closer to 300.

Hridoy explained his batting strategy with the tail and what got him those partnerships.
"I didn't view them (Tanzim Hasan Sakib and Taskin Ahmed) as tailenders. I always felt they have the potential to bat well and they have proven it. For example, when Taskin came on to bat, he asked me if he should take a single in the first ball, and I told him, if it's there to be hit, hit it," he said.  

The first two games were affected by dew and gave the chasing team an advantage, which they used to win the match.

However, the final match will be a day game and Hridoy felt a score like the one they got today would be enough to win the series.

"Dew factor is not in our control. It's such a time where there isn't much dew generally. There was a lot of dew in the last match and that doesn't help the bowlers. I still felt our bowlers did well, the way they came back in the end. The last match, which will be a day match, if we can bat like we did today, I think this will be enough for our bowlers to win us the game."