We are not here to improve our cricket but to win: Tamim
Skipper Tamim Iqbal was disappointed, as expected.
Bangladesh had the match within their grasp until Mushfiqur Rahim missed a dolly of Jimmy Neesham followed by another sitter missed by Mahedi Hasan. These two misses meant not only huge morale down to the players but also saw Bangladesh missing their best chance to beat New Zealand on their home soil for the very first time.
Skipper Tamim Iqbal was disappointed, as expected. He himself had a pretty good game with bat and then a tremendous piece of fielding which brought the Tigers right back into the game after a 100+ partnership for the 4th wicket. Tamim said the team had an improved performance than the first ODI, but that's not enough. They have travelled to New Zealand to win matches, not to just improve and be happy with that.
"We should've won this game. Bowler created chances, we couldn't hold on. The dropped catches, you know. When a situation comes, you have to do things 100%. Disappointed today," Tamim was visibly disappointed.
"271 was a decent score. And when the chances came, we couldn't hold on. Quite disappointing. I thought it was a much-improved game. We are not here to improve our cricket but to win."
Tamim didn't hold his frustration in the post-match ceremony. He urged his team to do better and try to at least bag a win in the next match.
"I was asked in the presentation that this was a big improvement from Dunedin. Yes, it may be a big improvement but I personally think we are not here to improve. We're here to win the match. Today was an opportunity for us that we could not exploit. Today was the best chance we missed."
Tamim added that any captain would get tired of repeating the same thing over and over again.
"There's a lot to take positive from here. To say these things is getting tiring for whoever the captain is. I can show you three or four things that were positive. But this is not our intention. Our aim is to win matches for which we have come here and opportunities like this don't come again and again. So it's okay to think about progress, but it doesn't matter to me. The importance is that Bangladesh should win matches that we could not."
"When the next chance comes, we need to grab with both hands. We just have to be positive in Wellington and give a crack to them again," he concluded.
Tamim and Mohammad Mithun bagged fifties respectively to guide Bangladesh to a defendable total.
New Zealand and Bangladesh will lock horns again in the third ODI in Wellington on Friday.
