Saifuddin scoring runs is a ‘big relief’ for the Tigers

Making a comeback to the side after a year, Mohammad Saifuddin -- whose previous best score with the bat was 16 -- registered his maiden half-century off 69 balls with the help of three fours and a six and along with Imrul Kayes's late surge, helped the Tigers add 85 runs in the last 10 overs of the innings.

The Tigers had been on the lookout for a pace-bowling all-rounder and in Saifuddin they might just have a player who is the missing jigsaw puzzle.

"If you look at Saifuddin you will see why he got into the side, because we were short on two areas… a pace bowling all-rounder and a wrist spinner," said captain Mashrafe Bin Mortaza while talking to reporters today at Chattogram.

When Saifuddin came in to bat, Tigers were six wickets down, losing three wickets in quick succession with only Mashrafe Bin Mortaza and tail-enders to follow. The 127-run seventh-wicket partnership between Imrul and Saifuddin was the highest seventh-wicket partnership for the Tigers in ODIs and it helped Tigers to a healthy total after being in a position where it looked like they were going to find it difficult to reach even 200.

"If he can play like this then we can recover [in case of a top-order or middle-order collapse]. We will go one step further in our development. If he continues performing than he will have more belief," Mashrafe opined.

"Saifuddin scoring runs is a big relief for us," said Mashrafe reiterating the important role that Saifuddin is currently being tried for. Coach Steve Rhodes had earlier suggested before the series that Saifuddin could be able to replace Mashrafe in the side in case of the latter's injury. For now, being under Mashrafe's tutelage can help Saifuddin build up confidence for the future challenges and that is what Tigers are looking at.