Bangladesh Test captain Mominul Haque has admitted that the thought of beating the World Champions New Zealand in a Test match gave him a sleepless night on the eve of their historic win against the Black Caps.
Bangladesh were firmly in control on Day 4, with New Zealand only 17 runs ahead, with Ross Taylor at the crease, and only five wickets in hand. However, this was not enough for the Bangla captain to be at ease.
“The plan in this Test was that we will not concede runs trying to take wickets. We wanted to create pressure in that way. Whether we get wickets or not. My message to the bowlers at the start of the [fifth] day was to repeat what we did in the last four days.
We can’t go for wickets. You might ask how can they take wickets then? When we took the fifth wicket yesterday [on the fourth day], I thought that they might get out for a small total, but it could have been very different too. I didn’t sleep at all last night”
The spirited Bangla bowlers were spectacular on the final day, as Ebadot Hossain wreaked most of the havoc to leave the Black Caps in dust, picking up five wickets in just over nine overs with the concession of just 22 runs to all but secure a monumental victory for the visitors. The 40-run target was no huge ask for the Bangladesh batsmen, as they knocked it off, securing an epoch-making eight-wicket win over the world champions.
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Mominul was all praises for his bowlers, whose outstanding effort made the historic victory possible, and said that he was well aware of Ebadot’s abilities and was extremely impressed with his brilliant performance.
“I am not surprised that Ebadot did well, I knew – and many others knew – that the day he gets it right, the opponent is finished. But obviously, he wasn’t consistent [before the six-wicket haul].
The bowling coach has worked hard with him. I think we are rewarded for playing him consistently in the last few Tests.”
Haque also said that he was focused on the task at hand and was not thinking about the eventual victory to keep his mind on the game and also said that people would have called him mad, had he even dreamt of achieving what they did.
