Bangladesh’s middle order has yet to be tested in the ongoing three-match T20I series against the Netherlands despite they have won the series with a match in hand.
The hosts secured the series with a crushing nine-wicket win over the Dutch in the second match to take a 2-0 lead in the series at the Sylhet International Stadium on Monday. The third and final match of the series will start at 6:00pm at the same venue today.
With their previous wins over Sri Lanka and Pakistan, this was Bangladesh’s third consecutive T20I series win. They will now look to clean sweep an opposition for the fourth time (series of minimum three matches) in their history.
In both matches against the Netherlands, Bangladesh batted second and chased down two moderate targets without facing any real challenge.
Bangladesh lost three wickets in the first two matches, meaning that only Saif Hassan, other than the top three—Parvez Hossain, Tanzid Hasan, and Liton Das—got the chance to spend some time in the middle.
Liton won the toss on both occasions and decided to chase. The possibility of the dew in the later half of the match seemingly prompted the Bangladesh captain’s decision.
‘See, everyone wants to take the home advantage,’ said opener Tanzid, who scored 54 off 40 balls, after the second match.
‘You have seen how much dew there was in the first match. So batting became easy for us in the second innings. So the plan might have been the same today, as this was the series decider,’ the left-handed batter added.
However, a small target of 104 runs in the second match allowed Bangladesh’s top order to play risk-free cricket. Tanzid batted with a strike rate of 135, while Liton played a run-a-ball 18.
Bangladesh had some chops and changes in the middle order in recent times. With Shamim Hossain being injured, Saif got the chance to play both the games but batted once.
The series against the Netherlands has been considered a preparation ahead of the Asia Cup that starts in the UAE in a week’s time.
But Bangladesh has seemingly done little experimentation as far as the batting is concerned.
Tanzid said that they were trying to play according to the situations.
‘We have plenty of time before this series. We all know how good the wickets in Sylhet are. We have got the chance to practise on very good wickets,’ he said.
‘Our plan is to maintain the winning combination so that everyone can perform. We are playing accordingly, however the wicket is. Because the wickets might be anything there [in the UAE, where the Asia Cup will be held].
‘We cannot say anything about this, as it’s out of our control. But everyone is trying to handle the situations,’ he further said.