‘Not used to this kind of pace bowling’
New Zealand new ball bowlers ran through the Bangladesh top-order and there was no let off for the Tigers when Lockie Ferguson battered down the batsmen bowling at 150 km/h. Mohammad Mithun, who was Bangladesh's most successful batter yesterday reiterated that they struggled against the pace battery of New Zealand.
Trent Boult was the most successful, picking up three wickets and even hitting Mushfiqur Rahim on the helmet with a bouncer to soften him up before the batsman dragged one back onto his stumps. Matt Henry was dangerous, picking up Liton Das and Soumya Sarkar while Ferguson bowled with pace and aggression to pick up Mahmudllah Riyad and Mithun.
"We are not used to this kind of pace bowling. 150 km/h pace… all of their bowlers bowl at 140 plus. We are used to conditions in Bangladesh so we regularly play 130 km/h hour deliveries. So, it's normal to face problems while playing 140 or 150 km/h deliveries.," he opined.
Bangladesh lost four wickets inside nine overs and although Mithun and Mohammad Saifuddin contributed with Bangladesh's highest ODI partnership for the eighth wicket, the recovery did not prove to be adequate. Mithun said that it was hard to recover well enough after the early wickets.
"Everyone knows that their pacers get a lot of swing with the new ball. We lost too many wickets due to the swinging ball and went to the backfoot. It was difficult to comeback since we were losing wickets regularly. If we had big partnerships then we could have recovered.
Bangladesh play the next match at Christchurch and Mithun talked about adjusting to the conditions quickly. "If we don't adjust to the conditions then there is little opportunity of getting good results. We have to start well.," he concluded.
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