Mahmudul rues missing out on a big hundred

Bangladesh opener Mahmudul Hasan has expressed disappointment after not being able to turn a promising innings into a big score on the first day of the Sylhet Test against New Zealand. Mahmudul scored a brilliant 86 but New Zealand came back to put the hosts on 310/9 with Glenn Phillips taking 4 for 53.  Shakib's best wishes to the Bangladesh team

Incidentally, Mahmudul also set for a century in his last Test against Afghanistan before being dismissed for 76 runs. "I don't get a chance to set every day and I miss two innings [to make it big] and will try to do better in the days to come," Mahmudul told reporters after the opening day's play. 

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“Obviously [disappointing] because you saw I had a chance to play a big innings but unfortunately missed it because as an opener you don't get a chance to set up and score big but today it came and unfortunately I missed it. 

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Everyone was set but nobody could build an innings and that's something we regret. We had planned that it would be good if we could score 350 or 380 runs but unfortunately it didn't happen," he said. 

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Among the batsmen who couldn't do the most after taking the field was Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hussain, who hit Phillips for three sixes and then fell trying for an encore. Mahmudul supported the captain's decision to take a part-time offspinner. 

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"Look he [Phillips] was an occasional bowler and if we didn't charge him and he started bowling well, then the main bowlers could have put pressure on us and so we planned to take the occasional bowlers but unfortunately we got out. Played a bad shot. I wouldn't say that [it was a judicial error] rather the bowler was lucky that he got a wicket on a bad delivery," he said.

"Shant [Nazmul] Bhai usually bats this way and he was playing according to his plan. See a batsman doesn't get set all the time and if we get out by 30 or 40 runs everyone will be disappointed. Naturally he was disappointed but it was a flower. -The toss happened against the ball and it's unfortunate, but it doesn't happen every day."

Mahmudul said that it was not easy to bat on the pitch due to continuous turn on proposals from the first session. However, his defense still had value for the confident batter. He said, 'The wicket is not as easy as it seems because the ball turns at times.'

"If you can trust your defence, it's easy but everyone has a different game plan, like Shant bhai was playing his normal game, I'm playing my natural game while Sohan bhai was playing his normal game. So everyone has a different game plan.

Series: Bangladesh tour of New Zealand, 2023

"We have 300 runs on the scoreboard and we are in a good position. Now we will try to restrict the opposition to our runs and with the quality spinners we have... we can get them out for low scores. The wicket is slow and we are prioritizing our spinners and If the spinners bowl, we can get them out cheaply,” he said.