Ireland seek creativity in breaking partnerships
Ireland coach Heinrich Malan said they were looking to put some pressure on Shakib Al Hasan, Tawhid Hridoy, and Mushfiqur Rahim with wickets in the middle overs to thwart Bangladesh in the second ODI, slated to be played at the Sylhet International Cricket Stadium today.
The visitors had bowled well early on in the Bangladesh innings on Saturday. When Najmul Hossain Shanto fell, the Tigers were in a tricky position and would have suffered if another wicket fell during that phase, but Shakib and Hridoy took the game away from Ireland's grasp during those middle overs. The 135-run stand between Shakib-Hridoy followed by the quickfire 80 between Mushfiqur-Hridoy took Bangladesh to their highest-ever ODI total.
"He [Shakib] is obviously a quality player. He showed it again yesterday. We are trying to find ways to get wickets in the middle overs of white-ball matches," Malan said.
"We picked up some wickets in the powerplay, but they built a nice partnership through the middle and allowed them to get a foundation, to have a successful death period.
"We are taking that into account, looking at tomorrow, we have to come up with one or two creative ways to break partnerships and get some quality players in the opposition under pressure," further said the Ireland coach, adding that his side's top six or seven have shown mettle in white-ball cricket. Thus, they will look to rectify what happened in the first game to keep the series alive.
"It was a nice surface. It wasn't as affected as we thought it would be. It is something that we identified and something we will rectify tomorrow."
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