I wanted to prove the reports wrong, says Saifuddin

After Jasprit Bumrah bowled Rubel Hossain and Mustafizur Rahman with successive yorkers to signal the end of the match and Bangladesh’s World Cup campaign, Mohammad Saifuddin stood mid-pitch in disbelief. He was unbeaten on a 38-ball 51, and if either of the two tailenders had gotten bat on ball, Bumrah’s quota would have been over and Saifuddin could have launched an assault on India’s target.

Even after losing all recognised batsmen, the all-rounder from Feni was intent on making something of an apparent lost cause, and he later revealed that there was extra motivation behind his determination.

“A few days ago there was a bad news that I used an injury as an excuse to get out of a match against a big team,” an emotional Saifuddin said after the match. “So I was thinking that I would become a hero by winning a match against a big team. When I took the field against India, from the first ball to the last, I was determined to win the match so that I could prove the allegations against my name wrong. Unfortunately that did not happen.

“For us players, we have nothing to do but give our answers on the field of play. That is what we try to do,” he said when asked whether the chest thump after reaching his fifty was motivated by the news reports.

Since the start of the World Cup, Saifuddin has been struggling from back pain and it was hinted in an article after the game that he sat out the World Cup match against Australia on June 20 when he could have played that game. Saifuddin had been nursing back pain since the Ireland series in the first half of May and had aggravated it during the warm-up match against India on May 28. There has, however, been no report from physio Thihan Chandramohan on the issue.