Tamim: My plan to put SL bowlers under pressure clicked

Bangladesh opener Tamim Iqbal believes day one well and truly belongs to the Tigers, despite the fall of two late wickets, and informed that the positive approach from ball one made the difference against visiting Sri Lanka in the first Test match at Zahur Ahmed Chowdhury Cricket Stadium in the port city. Tamim laid the foundation for a big total with a quickfire half-century and later No 3 batsman Mominul Haque and wicketkeeper-batsman Mushfiqur Rahim posted a dominant 236-run partnership for the third wicket to lift Bangladesh to a strong position after day one. “It would have been a complete performance if the second wicket stand finished the day. We were a little anxious to avoid the collapse which we often have after a big partnership. It was unfortunate for Liton [Das] to get out just after Mushfiq was dismissed. I still believe it was a fantastic day for us. We were very positive and attacking from ball one. It was nice to see,” Tamim said during the post-day press conference Wednesday.

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“My plan to put them under pressure clicked. I was trying to attack their main bowlers from ball one, which put them in a situation where we wanted them to be. They have two world-class spinners but at one point they didn’t know where to bowl. We knew their past record, so to successfully attack them makes us happy,” he added. The day one pitch did not turn that much and Bangladesh batsmen countered the Sri Lankan bowling attack quite easily. Now Bangladesh are in a good position from where they can put further pressure on the Lankans. Tamim hopes the pitch will offer more help to the spinners when Sri Lanka come out to bat.

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“It is still our day after losing two late wickets. A lot will depend on how we start [Thursday]. They have quality bowlers to put us under pressure if we don’t start well,” he said. “I won’t put up a number, but we are in a position from where we can score more runs. We don’t get this position every day. We have six wickets in hand, and we have a good run-rate. We need to make sure we start well [Thursday]. If we can build more partnerships, we can score pretty big. “I hope the wicket becomes difficult from [Thursday] when they come out to bat. Our responsibility would be to capitalise on this position and score as much as possible. A big score is always pressure (for the opposition), regardless of the pitch,” Tamim concluded.