BANGLADESH AT PEAK PERFORMANCE
You don’t score 70-80 runs in the powerplay everyday’: Litton Das
by Atif Azam • Last updated on Wed, Mar 29, 2023
Opening batsman Litton Das has lauded the Bangladesh men’s team and reckons that the team is playing to their full potential.
Bangladesh clinched the T20I series against Ireland with one game to spare, as they beat the visitors by 77 runs in the rain-curtailed 17-over game.
Litton struck a brilliant 83 off 41 balls and put up a record-breaking stand of 124 runs with Rony Talukdar (44 off 23 balls) in the opening stand to help the hosts post a massive 202-3 in 17 overs. In response, the bowling department were clinical, as Shakib Al Hasan picked up his second five-wicket haul in T20Is to restrict Ireland to 125-9.
Bangladesh brushed away the visitors in the three-match ODI series, and continued to dominate in the shortest format with their aggressive brand of cricket.
“As a group, we are playing really good cricket, be it batting, bowling, or fielding. I don’t know if you can play better cricket than this,” a delighted Litton Das told reporters after the game on Wednesday.
“If we maintain our performance, the results will come our way. Expecting better cricket than this is difficult. You can’t score 70-80 in powerplay every day. If we can do this every day, or we can even hit 60 in powerplay, I think it’s really good.”
“Obviously, we get into the field to win the game. I think we have played well in the last two games and could play the brand of cricket that we wanted to play,” he added.
Litton, who broke Mohammad Ashraful’s 16-year-old record of the quickest T20I fifty (20 ball), has expressed regret missing out on a century due to a unnecessarily hasty cricket in the middle overs.
“It feels good (to break the record of the fastest fifty), but I have said before that I never think about records,” he said. “However, I felt like I was rushing too much in the middle overs when the wicket was assisting spinners.”
“If I had taken more time to play the pacers, I guess it would have been 100 instead of 83. Yes, it feels good, but it would feel better if it was 100.”
The pair of Litton and Rony Talukdar also surpassed the previous highest opening stand record for Bangladesh in the format, between Soumya Sarkar and Mohammad Naim (102 runs against Zimbabwe). The imperious stand was finally broken by leg-spinner Benjamin White, when he removed Talukdar and Das in successive overs.
“I think this is the highest opening partnership [for Bangladesh]. Things can’t get any bigger than this.” said a content Litton Das. “You won’t get this much success in every match either, or we won’t just get to the wicket and start hitting every day. There will be struggles, but I am having fun batting with him [Rony Talukdar].”
