The Bangladesh cricket team was all set to life the Asia Cup 2012 trophy, but their dream went into drain on the last ball of the match. It was really the heart touching moment for cricket lovers.
It would not be wrong, if we say that this was Bangladesh best ever performance in their cricketing history. The home team beat ICC Cricket World Cup 2011 winning team India and runner-up Sri Lanka in their league matches and set to face Pakistan in the finals.
After loosing the match to Pakistan, captain of Bangladesh, Mushfiqur Rahim said, “Before the tournament, we had great preparation. The boys stuck to the plans. We played good in the tournament, I thought. But the wickets of Shakib and Tamim were the turning point tonight,” the Bangladesh skipper said after losing the final in a last-ball cliffhanger.”
No doubt Bangladesh lost the match to Pakistan by just 2 runs, but it wins the hearts of cricket fans allover the world.
He said, “The wicket is a bit slowish; it’s not easy to score runs. Tamim and Shakib played well. We gave away some runs in the last over [of Pakistan innings]; that was crucial.”
Bangladesh captain said, “It’s been a great tournament for Shakib, Tamim, Mashrafe, Razzak and Nasir. We fought in all the games and we achieved a lot in this tournament.”
Shakib said, “If we look at the overall tournament, we were terrific.” He said, “Teamwork has been terrific. The way the crowd supported us was fantastic too. Hopefully we’ll kick on from here.”
The home team has found a key player in this tournament, it’s Tamim Iqbal, who scored four consecutive fifties in the Asia Cup.
Further, Shakib said, “If I had scored two more runs, we would have won the game. We came so close to win the Asia Cup. We’ll take the positives from this series and move on from there.”
On the other hand, Pakistan has lifted the Asia Cup after a gap of 12 long years. Pakistani captain Misbah-ul-Haq said, “Wonderful victory, well fought by all guys. The youngsters came in and contributed well. Hammad Azam played well, Sarfraz’s innings was a vital one for us. It was a good team effort.”
He said, “This wicket was a little different from the other ones; it was slow. We were hoping that around 225-230 would be a fighting score. The spinners bowled very well. The pacers did well in the end.”
While talking about Bangladesh’s performance throughout the Asia Cup, Misbah said, “Bangladesh played wonderfully well. This is really a new Bangladesh team and they are really the winners.”
The star cricketer of Pakistan, Shahid Afridi said, “Bangladesh really played well; they played awesome cricket. They always surprise and give a tough time to the top teams. The credit goes to guys like Shakib and Nasir; they really played some good cricket.”
