DHAKA: After ending their 16-year long Pakistan hoodoo, all-rounder Shakib Al Hasan is confident Bangladesh will seal a historic series by beating their senior sub-continent rivals in the second of the three One-day Internationals here on Sunday.

Bangladesh coasted to a comprehensive 79-run win in the first match at the Sher-e-Bangla Natio­nal Cricket Stadium on Friday.

Shakib, who led the team in absence of regular captain Mashrafe Mortaza, said the next tie was very crucial.

“We will definitely try to win the next match. If we can win that match then we will try to win the third,” the talismanic cricketer said on Saturday. “Our first target is to win the series and will try that in the next match. We will think of 3-0 only if we win the second match.”

Although the scorecard suggested an easy win for the Tigers, Shakib said otherwise.

“It was a difficult win... if we can continue the result will be good for us. Yes, it [winning the series] is possible.

“It feels good after a win, especially having won after such a long time [against Pakistan] — it is a big deal for the team.”

Shakib warned his team-mates that winning the series will in no way be a walk in the park.

“We will have the upper hand and the confidence will be high the next two matches but it won’t be easy. We have to play our best cricket.”

Bangladesh registered their first win against Pakistan in all forms of the game after the 1999 World Cup clash at Northampton. But the celebration was pretty flat given the occasion.

“We still believe that we can win; we are the favourites, so that’s why [it was like that],” Shakib explained. “The last few matches that we played against Pak­i­stan were close and they could have come our way, but they didn’t.

“Today we were more desperate, in the end result came for us,” the top all-rounder said.

Mashrafe will be back to lead Bangladesh after the one-game ban because of slow over-rate during the World Cup quarter-final against India in Melbourne last month. He will replace Abu Hasan in the playing XI.

Meanwhile, Pakistan captain Azhar Ali has blamed his side’s uninspiring show in the field during the series opener.

After Shakib chose to bat first, Bangladesh racked up a huge 329-6 riding on two brilliant centuries by Tamim Iqbal (132) and Mushfiqur Rahim (106).

But both the batsmen, however, were given reprieve once in their innings as Pakistani fielders spilled catches.

“We made some mistakes in the field and dropped a few catches in the crucial phases,” Azhar said.

Apart from fielding, Azhar also rued poor bowling in the death overs. “Some of the bowling wasn’t up to our standards, the way we bowled in the death overs and power play we weren’t up to it.”

Azhar thought Bangladesh scored 30-40 runs more than they had expected and that piled the pressure on the tourists.

Azhar, who made his captaincy debut on Friday, however, said Pakistan will bounce back in the next match. “We have to look forward now, there is a gap of just one day before the next game but we have to bounce back and show our full strength again.”

Pakistan have called up experienced seamer Umar Gul after paceman Ehsan Adil was ruled out due to a hamstring injury.

Ehsan’s injury is the fourth setback for Pakistan after batsman Sohaib Maqsood (arm fracture) and fast bowler Sohail Khan (back injury) were ruled out before the tour began, while leg-spinner Yasir Shah injured his thumb in a practice match prior to the one-day series.

Ehsan was not a part of the playing XI in the opening match of the series.

Ehsan, 22, was due to return home on Saturday while Umar, who is in the Twenty20 squad for the April 24 fixture, was expected to arrive in Dhaka in time for the second game..

Team manager Naveed Cheema said that Ehsan’s injury had worsened.

“Ehsan had a minor injury while coming to Bangladesh; we thought he would be fine. Today we examined him again and found that he has aggravated the hamstring injury,” Cheema said. “The physio is of the opinion that he cannot recover sufficiently in the next seven days, so we are sending him back.”

Teams (from):

BANGLADESH: Tamim Iqbal, Soumya Sarkar, Mohammad Mahmudullah, Mushfiqur Rahim, Shakib Al Hasan, Sabbir Rahman, Nasir Hossain, Mashrafe Mortaza (captain), Taskin Ahmed, Arafat Sunny, Rubel Hossain, Abul Hasan, Mominul Haque, Rony Talukdar.

PAKISTAN: Azhar Ali (captain), Sarfraz Ahmed, Mohammad Hafeez, Haris Sohail, Mohammad Rizwan, Fawad Alam, Saad Nasim, Wahab Riaz, Umar Gul, Saeed Ajmal, Junaid Khan, Rahat Ali, Zulfiqar Babar, Sami Aslam, Asad Shafiq.

Umpires: Enamul Haque (Bangladesh) and Nigel Llong (England).

TV umpire: Ruchira Palliyaguruge (Sri Lanka).

Match referee: Jeff Crowe (New Zealand).

Published in Dawn, April 19th, 2015

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