PHOTO: Cricket Ireland
Bangladesh are playing Ireland in England but while fans at home might be slightly disappointed at the viewing opportunities as no TV channel are broadcasting the game, batter Nazmul Hossain Shanto was happy with the attendance of a big contingent of Bangladeshi crowd at Chelmsford yesterday.
Although the game was finally abandoned due to rain, Shanto was hoping the next game too will bring in the crowd. Fans were seen loudly cheering on the Tigers during the game before rain.
“It was tremendous. That so many fans came is something that inspires us. Hopefully the next game will see similar number of supporters. It didn’t feel like we were playing outside the country since eighty-ninety percent of the crowd were Bangladeshi,” Shanto said during a press conference yesterday.
PHOTO: Cricket Ireland
Bangladesh faced the music in terms of the swing and seam movement on offer early after being put into bat. Shakib Al Hasan looked fluent but could not get going after early wickets while Shanto too was holed up at deep mid-wicket after scoring 44.
It took a 71-ball 60 and contributions from Taijul Islam (14 off 36) and Shoriful Islam (16 off 15) to get Bangladesh to 246 for 9. Shoriful and Hasan Mahmud then bagged early wickets before Taijul too got amongst the wickets before rain saw the game abandoned with Ireland on 65 for three. Despite the movement that Ireland bowlers got, the wicket looked good for batting and Shanto felt that if there were big partnerships, they could have posted a better score.
“Usually 290-300 runs are scored here. When we began the game, we didn’t think of that though but tried to assess the wicket. Although we didn’t have any big partnerships but if we could manage that, we could have reached that kind of score,” he said.
