Mirpur: Upbeat after handing out back-to-back humiliating defeats to India, Bangladesh captain Mashrafe Mortaza has credited the success to his side's "fearless approach" and acknowledged that the team did not expect to win by such big margins.
After beating India by 79 runs in the opening match, Bangladesh outplayed the visitors by six-wickets in the second of the three ODIs to clinch their maiden series win against the Asian giants. Mortaza could not hide his excitement after the historic achievement.
"It is one of the biggest achievements actually. I think the boys are really confident. Maybe we didn't expect to win that way. But we were always going to play to win and fight till the last ball and obviously I know that if we play our best cricket, it will be competitive and we can win as well. I will say that a lot of luck was also involved," said Mashrafe in the post-match conference here yesterday.
The inspirational Bangladesh allrounder expressed his satisfaction over the success but cautioned the team to maintain consistency.
"Look, consistency was our biggest problem. At the moment things are going well for us and I hope it will continue. In cricket, momentum is very important. Hopefully the boys will keep it up. There were a lot of challenges in the last 15 years but keeping this form is going to be a greater challenge for us. I think it's a good pressure. When you win everything comes out well. Hopefully the boys will now deliver regularly," he said.
Even though Bangladesh found a young star in left-arm pacer Mustafizur Rahman, who became only the second bowler to bag two five-wicket hauls in his first couple of ODIs, Mortaza did not forget to praise off-spinner Nasir Hossain for his quite two-wicket effort.
"He is one of the best off-spinners in the team. India have lost a lot of wickets to off-spinners in the last one-and a-half years and that is why we brought Nasir early," said Mortaza.
Mashrafe also said that there is no pressure to go for a clean sweep when they take on India on Wednesday.
"No, there is no pressure, nobody told us ahead of the match that we will win this series 2-0. India also said that we have nothing to lose so now we will just come on the field and enjoy. If we do that the result will be there. But we are not worried or thinking about a whitewash. We are just hoping to do our best," Moratza said when asked about the team's approach for the final ODI.
