Nazmul happy to make a contribution

Nothing could have been sweeter than starting a World Cup with a hundred, but to Nazmul Hossain the team's success came first. There were cries for a big knock in the home tent despite what was eventually a comfortable win in the opener and Nazmul said that the was happy that his 73-run innings contributed towards Bangladesh Under-19s victory against their South African counterparts.

"My goal has been to contribute to the team ever since I started my career as a cricketer. There is no point if I score a century and my team loses. My planning is always -- whether I score 100, 70 or 10 -- that it should be beneficial to the team," said a confident Nazmul, who was awarded the player-of-the-match for his splendid knock, which was a fine blend of patience and aggression.

"It feels great that I made 70 and my team won the match," he added.

Nazmul said that his previous World Cup experience helped him build up the innings when the hosts were in a difficult situation.

"The experience from the last World Cup helped me to pace my innings because I know what to do in different circumstances," he explained.

"My initial plan was to rotate the strike and pick up singles, while punishing bad balls. But when we suddenly lost a few wickets I decided to build up my innings by picking up singles," he continued.

He also opined that 240 was a good total on a pitch where batting was not easy.

"240-250 was a good score there. The wicket was slow and the ball came late to the bat so scoring runs was not easy. Our target was to score 240-250," he said.

Nazul admitted that there were some nerves in the team during the opening match, but the players were determined to play their natural game which is what eventually paid dividends.