Were ‘surprised’ after losing first match to Zimbabwe: Bijoy

Bangladesh expected to bounce back in ODIs after the first ever T20I series loss to Zimbabwe. But Bangladesh could not win the first ODI match in Harare despite a handsome total of 303 runs. Wicket-keeper batsman Anamul Haque Bijoy said that the team were surprised after the defeat.

Bijoy made the comment to the reporters at the airport after returning home from Zimbabwe on Friday (August 12) afternoon. 

All the team members returned to Dhaka except ODI captain Tamim Iqbal.

Bijoy said, “Of course we were surprised after losing the first match. We did not perform as much we had hope in Zimbabwe. It was definitely a bad thing for us.”

“The second match when we saw that they were going the same way, of course we were a little nervous at that time. But I think this is a series where we did not give our 100%,” he added.

In the first match, Bangladesh were beat by 5 wickets despite a big score. Innocent Kaia and Sikandar Raza hits centuries. In the second match, Bangladesh scored 290 runs and was trounced by 5 wickets as well. Raza smashed a century again and captain Regis Chakabva scored the fastest century in the history of Zimbabwe. Bangladesh finally escaped whitewash by winning the last match by 105 runs.

According to Bijoy that happened unfortunately. Referring to Bangladesh’s consistency in ODIs, Bijoy said, “Actually, in ODI cricket, we have been playing very good cricket consistently for the last two years. The incident in Zimbabwe unfortunately happened. But Bangladesh team is very good in ODI. We every player believes, if our process is right, if we all play with 100%, Inshallah it would be possible to win any series against any team.”