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Bangladesh, despite their struggles against short bowling in the second One-Day International of their three-match series against South Africa in Johannesburg, are not threatened by it and are confident of doing well in the third ODI at Centurion.
Bangladesh won the first ODI at Centurion by 38 runs, their first against the Proteas in South Africa, but the hosts came back strong as the barrage of short deliveries flustered the Tiger batsmen. Kagiso Rabada was the destroyer-in-chief taking five wickets, with three of them from short deliveries.
Except for those wickets, the Bangladesh batsmen were exposed against the short balls continuously, and that led to them only scoring 194-9 in 50 overs. That left the question of whether Temba Bavuma and co would opt for the same strategy to capitalise on Bangladesh’s area of discomfort.
But all-rounder Mehidy Hasan Miraz, who scored 38 in the second ODI, believes that it was not the weakness of the Bangladesh batsmen that led to the struggle and that they were not worried about the South African chin music on Wednesday.
“I will not say that we are very weak at playing the short ball. We played very well against the short ball in the first ODI. Rabbi (Yasir Ali), Shakib bhai, Liton, Tamim bhai, even those at the late order, played the short ball really well.
“If the wicket produces even bounce, it is easier for the batsmen to play. But if the bounce is uneven, then they get confused. I believe our batsmen are not weak at playing the short ball. We are not worried about that. We are only planning about playing good cricket,” the all-rounder said in a press conference on Tuesday.
Miraz believes the wicket at Centurion will not be as tricky as the one in Johannesburg.
“I think the wicket here (in Centurion) is very good, as we saw in the first match. We are also confident that we scored more than 300 here. So, if everybody plays taking responsibility, doing something great is possible. If there is a good total for the bowlers, we will be able to defend it with confidence,” he said.
A repeat of their first ODI win at Centurion would hand Bangladesh a monumental series win, but Miraz is trusting their process rather than thinking about victory.
“Results are not in our hands. What we can do is maintain the process and play good cricket. If we think about the result right now, it will become difficult. If we can play well on the pitch, and everything goes in our favour, we may win the match. It’s not like we must win this match. We will try to play according to our strengths and do well,” he said.
The 24-year-old added, “We are playing good cricket for the last few years and have won against big teams at home. We have won away series against West Indies, but winning in South Africa would improve our team’s condition massively. Big teams will think about us and the confidence of the players is boosted with away series win.”
