That proved to be a crucial moment in the game as Shakib not only took the game away from Sri Lanka, but also made sure Najmul got his rhythm back by playing his natural game. Sri Lanka tried to go with the short ball tactics against Shakib, a move that had worked effectively in the previous games against the all-rounder. However, Shakib countered the short-ball attack and played effectively square of the wicket on both sides.
After a while, even Najmul played some elegant drives and cuts to make sure the pressure was released. What worked for him was the fact that when boundaries were hard to come by, he managed to rotate the strike. The duo stitched a 179-run stand for the third wicket, which is now the highest for Bangladesh against Sri Lanka in ODIs, surpassing 144 runs between Shakib and Tamim Iqbal at Dambulla in 2017.
“It was a very important partnership. We talk about it constantly in the dressing room. We always needed these partnerships to win games, especially in the top order. Otherwise, we are always repairing damage in the lower order. Today’s partnership won us the game,” Shakib told reporters after the game against Sri Lanka.
“Yeah, I mean, when we lost two wickets, we had to rebuild. We know the wickets is good. We had to bat deep, make a partnership and that will ease a lot of pressure,” he said
“That’s exactly what we did and when we had the opportunity, we capitalized, we counterattacked them, put a lot of pressure back on them because it wasn’t an easy pitch to bat on. Also, dew was helping us a lot. So, we know that ball was coming onto the bats, we had to just bat deep.
“When we were on the 17th, 18th over, we were just saying that if we bat 30th over, we can take the game close to the finishing line and if one of us stays, we can finish it early. And after that, when we lost a couple of quick wickets, myself and Shanto got out,” he said.
Shakib and Nazmul both missed well deserved hundred as they made 82 and 90 runs respectively but they certainly helped the team regain the confidence of the team management.
“It will give the dressing room a little more confidence for the next game. Australia is a really good team and they are playing great cricket. We have some belief back in our system. We have to win the next game, which would confirm qualification to the Champions Trophy,” he concluded
