We gave our 120% : Shanto

Bangladesh skipper Najmul Hossain Shanto said that, the Tigers gave their 120% to win against Sri Lanka at the Grand Prairie Stadium, Dallas on Saturday (8 June). Bangladesh won the match by two wickets thanks to a collective bowling effort from Rishad Hossain, Mustafizur Rahman and Taskin Ahmed before a quickfire 40 from Towhid Hridoy to chase down 125 runs.

Bangladesh weren't at their best before their T20 World Cup opener against they rivals Sri Lanka. They lost a series to the USA before surrendering to India in the only warm-up match they got to play. "Everybody' body language was great, we gave our 120%. Last 10-15 days we have been making plans and all the fielders are doing their job," Shanto said at the post-match presentation.

Bangladesh made a tough job out of what should have been a comfortable chase. Shanto thinks Bangladesh should have been more dominant with the bat. "I think they bowled really well, but on a wicket like this we should have won this easily," Shanto added.

Apart from Hridoy, Litton Das played a useful knock of 36 runs. The skipper believes this knock was really important for a struggling Litton. "Very important for Litton, he's been struggling a bit but he showed his skill today. I think he batted really well. Hridoy was really courageous, the way he played that over really helped us. Also, very happy with the crowd. I hope they will come back again. Thank you for coming" he concluded.

Wanindu Hasaranga the captain of Srilanka express his feelings with disappointment. He said,  "Yeah, of course. Our batters batted really well in the first 8 to 10 overs. But in the middle overs, we batted badly. You know, our bowling attack is our strength. If the batters put 150-160, we can win the games with our bowling attack. In the last two games, the batters didn't do their jobs."

In the conclusion, he determined about remaining games and said, "It's tough. We have lost the first two games. We have two more games. We will try to come back stronger. We bowled with four main bowlers. We had to keep attacking. Our four genuine bowlers did the job but we had to make another four overs with our all-rounders. That was the turning point."