SA vs BAN: Najmul Hossain Shanto Breaks Silence On Nasum Ahmed's Wide Delivery To Virat Kohli

Najmul Hossain Shanto, the stand-in captain for the Bangladesh cricket team, has clarified that the wide delivery directed at Virat Kohli while he was in his nineties during their ICC Cricket World Cup 2023 match against India was purely accidental. Virat Kohli went on to secure both the victory and his 48th ODI century by hitting a six against the left-arm spinner Nasum Ahmed in the 42nd over.

He also highlighted the impressive performance of young opener Tanzid Hasan, who formed a solid partnership with Litton Das in the early stages of the game. However, Shanto acknowledged that the team expected more substantial contributions from Tanzid Hasan in future innings.

“No, no. There was no such plan. It was a normal plan. No bowler had the intention to bowl wide ball. We tried to play a proper game. What was the other one? Tanzid batted very well. I think it didn’t go well for him for the last few innings but the way he batted today was very good. But the team expects a bigger innings from him. So, I hope he will play a bigger innings in the future if the opportunity comes,” Najmul Hossain Shanto said in the post-match press conference.

Najmul Hossain Shanto Highlights Poor Show From Batters In Middle Overs

While Bangladesh had a strong start with their best-ever opening partnership in a World Cup match, an 88-ball, 93-run partnership between Litton Das and Tanzid Hasan, they faced challenges in the middle overs. Despite the absence of Hardik Pandya due to injury, Bangladesh lost their top four batsmen within the next 13 overs.

Consequently, their innings lost momentum, and they struggled to post a competitive total. Najmul Hossain Shanto expressed his disappointment with the middle-order batting performance, highlighting the importance of responsibility and better decision-making by the team’s batters.

In summary, Najmul Hossain Shanto noted the need for the team to improve their batting performance in the middle overs to achieve better results in future matches. “I think we could not bat well in the middle overs. It would have been a different ball game if the openers batted a bit longer. A couple of wickets were soft dismissals. The wicket was good, but the batters failed to take responsibility,” Shanto added.

Bangladesh will now face South Africa on 24 October at the Wankhede Stadium in Mumbai. They have beaten the Proteas at the 2019 World Cup and will hope to repeat the same result on the 24th. Shakib Al Hasan will be back as Bangladesh’s captain after missing out on the clash against India, he was also the Player of the Match when Bangladesh defeated South Africa at the 2019 World Cup.