'I believed in him'

TEARAWAY TASKIN: Young Chittagong Kings pacer Taskin Ahmed expends full effort while taking 4 for 31 against Duronto Rajshahi in the 1st BPL T20 semifinal at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur yesterday. PHOTO: FIROZ AHMED

Taskin Ahmed was the reason Chittagong won their crucial game yesterday. He ran through Duronto Rajshahi's top-order by scalping four wickets and laid the foundation for a comfortable chase in the second innings. The lanky bowler however was barely used in the tournament. The reason behind that, said skipper Mahmudullah Riyad, was the lack of opportunity.
“It wasn't a risk playing Taskin. He didn't get much opportunity. Our plan was that since it was a night game, we would play one less spinner and put in a pacer and because Shaun Tait is injured and has gone back we played Taskin. And he responded quite well,” said Riyad at the end of the match.
“I believed in him. The whole team believed in him. We knew that Taskin would play well. When I saw the wicket I wanted to field and I knew that Taskin could swing and cut the ball and ultimately he did it. If he can perform he will be a very good prospect for Bangladesh cricket,” he added.
Despite Rajshahi's low total the game was headed for a close finish almost similar to the teams' previous meeting at the beginning of the tournament, a match which saw Rajshahi defend 99. “Everyone who played the first game for us was there in the team. Everybody was telling themselves that it was a similar kind of wicket. So we all wanted to keep wickets. We had a good start and the best part was that Ravi Bopara was there till the end,” said Riyad.
With the all-important semifinal clash against the Sylhet Royals scheduled to take place today, Riyad believes that the key to success would be not to take any sort of pressure.
“We are not thinking of anything different in the next game. We don't want to take any more pressure. However, we need to improve on things like not losing wickets in the middle,” he said.