Bangladesh batsman Mahmudullah expects his side to come strong with the bat when they take on Pakistan in the unofficial semi-final of the Asia Cup.
Bangladesh following a nail-biting three-run win over Afghanistan in Abu Dhabi Sunday have equal two points with Pakistan in the Super Four round, thus setting up their clash as a final-place decider.
Bangladesh will take on Pakistan in Abu Dhabi Wednesday and the winning team will progress to the final and take on India two days later.
But before the Pakistan clash, Bangladesh will look to get their batting in shape. The side have struggled with the willow in the six-nation tournament so far.
Bangladesh got off to a winning start in the competition against Sri Lanka (in the group stage) but that had come riding on the success of the two batsmen, Mushfiqur Rahim and Mohammad Mithun.
Bangladesh were then below-par with the bat in two matches, against Afghanistan (in the group phase) and India (in the Super Four stage) and suffered heavy defeats.
They succumbed to yet another failure with the bat but middle-order batsman Mahmudullah and Imrul Kayes came to the rescue and steered the side to a competitive total.
“We still need to work on a few areas. I will give full credit to our bowling department. But we still need to work on a few things in our batting...How we started, especially in the top-order, there are still things we can improve on. Our middle-order has been quite strong, but our top-order needs to click,” said Mahmudullah to the media in Abu Dhabi Sunday.
Mahmudullah believes the close win against Afghanistan will boost Bangladesh’s confidence against Pakistan. Chasing 250, Afghanistan were restricted to 246 for the loss of seven wickets as left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman defended eight runs in the last over of the chase.
“It always feels good to win by narrow margins like this. They (Afghanistan) played very well, we also played very well. Maybe we held our nerve better in the end because of Mustafizur's brilliant last over. I am repeatedly giving him credit because we all saw that he was cramping near the end. He was stretching. It was not that easy," said Mahmudullah.
"He was probably not even bowling in his full run-up; he had shortened it a bit. So that is why I am giving credit to Mustafizur. As far as the Pakistan match goes, they are past champion and are one of the better sides in the world. So we have to play well, there is no alternative to that.”
