‘If we played a little better, this series would have been ours’ – Nigar Sultana reflects on Bangladesh’s T20I series loss against India

Nigar Sultana. (Photo Source: Twitter/BCB)

In the third and final T20I of the series, Bangladesh finally managed to defeat India after five-long years. Notably, the Nigar Sultana-led side played well in the recently concluded three-match series but unfortunately, their batting let them down. They were in the driver’s seat in the second T20I as well but wickets kept falling one after the other as the team eventually lost by eight runs.

However, in the third T20I, both bowlers and batters did a commendable job. After restricting the visiting team to 102 runs, Bangladesh struggled initially but Shamima Sultana played some sensational cricket to take her team over the line. Meanwhile, following the win, Nigar reflected on how things have changed in Bangladesh cricket in recent times and now, they are confident of beating India due to a change in mentality.

“We are really happy as we have won here after a long time (against India). We have always had close matches against India. We felt that if we played a little better, this series would have been ours. I keep telling everyone that only when you allow your brain to tell yourself that we can beat India, we can definitely beat them. I think I am successful in that way but there’s a lot left to do as a team. I think we could beat a team like India due to our change of mentality,” Nigar was quoted as saying by Cricbuzz.

I was telling Shamima to stay till the end: Sultana

Even though Shamima lost her wicket towards the fag end, the opener did her job in helping the team stay in a comfortable position throughout the chase. Speaking about her knock, skipper Nigar lauded Shamima and revealed her advice to the batter.

“A run chase becomes easier when one of the top-order batters stays till the 14th or 15th over and Shamima did it well. I was telling her to stay till the end. I didn’t think the equation was too complicated. Taking singles made the chase easy for us. The ball wasn’t coming onto the bat in this wicket. An aggressive shot could have been costly. I told her to carry on playing shots. If she carried the innings deep, it will make the equation easy for us,” the skipper added.

The two sides will now square off in a three-match ODI series which is set to commence from July 16. All three games of the series will be a part of the ICC Championship cycle.