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Tuesday, March 15, 2011

ICC Cricket World Cup 2011

Shakib calls for normalcy

Bangladesh keeper Mushfiqur Rahim is lifted off the ground by a teammate after his brilliant run out of Netherlands batsman Tom Cooper during their World Cup match at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium yesterday. Photo: Anisur Rahman

Shakib Al Hasan has urged the fans to remain "normal" after big wins or big losses following their 6-wicket win over the Netherlands at the Zohur Ahmed Chowdhury Stadium here yesterday.
After his team's cruise over the ICC Associates in a one-sided encounter, the world's No 1 ranked all-rounder said that the confidence of the public is back on the team after two favourable results over the last four days.
"I think they are confident because they were supportive all the time. We played one bad game and that time they went wrong. But other than that, they were always supporting us," said Shakib during the post-match press conference.
"It is good to get the confidence from the crowd. They will understand (that) at the end of the day it's a game, some days you will win and some days you will lose and hopefully they will take it normally,” he said.
Shakib had to undergo a tough week after the 58 all out debacle on March 4, but the team bounced back through a thrilling 2-wicket victory over England last Friday and this easy win. He said that he found differences between both extremes.
“We knew that a win would change everything and because we had played well previously, we knew we could repeat that and that one bad game won't matter. I never thought that we went too far back after that game.
“If you're talking about the last 10 days, of course there will be a little difference. A lot of negative talks will come as positive. I think everyone will try to talk positive. So there will be a difference,” said Shakib, who counted out the run-rate factor from his team's equation, giving more importance to winning and also banking on the result from the England-West Indies game.
If England beat West Indies, Bangladesh are definitely through to the quarterfinals. But if England win, then the Tigers have to win their last game on March 19 against South Africa. Things will also get interesting if Ireland end up surprising South Africa.
“We don't think we can cover the run-rate, because we didn't score big in this tournament. It is not depending on the run-rate, if we win the next match, we will qualify for the next round, it is as simple as that,” he said.
Shakib and his opposite number Peter Borren were full of Shafiul Islam's praises, although the paceman went wicketless in an impressive 9-over spell.
“If you take a look at it, both our first two wins were his contributions. He's doing well in the crucial moments. Today as well he bowled well with the new ball and returned to bowl a good spell. I think he learned a lot from the India game,” said Shakib.
Borren said that Shafiul was accurate, thus not helping his team's cause of attacking the seamers.
“He bowled really well. He did not bowl a bad ball the whole day and he was pretty consistent. We were looking to attack the seamers a little bit at the start because we felt that it might have been our opportunity to score with the Powerplay and the hard ball and the pace on the ball.