"I didn't set my mind to scoring a century": Bangladesh batter Mahmudullah

Distraught after Bangladesh went down tamely to highflying South Africa in the 23rd match of the ongoing ICC World Cup 2023 at Mumbais Wankhede Stadium on Tuesday senior batter Mahmudullah Riyad said he didnt have a century in mindSpeaking at the postmatch press conference after the Proteas handed the Tigers a resounding defeat Mahmudullah offered some insight into his partnership with tailenderbatter Mustafizur Rahman saying his only message to the latter was to hold one end up while he looked to keep the chase going from the otherI didnt set my mind to scoring a century to be honest The focus was to spend time in the middle to just bat When myself and Mustafizur were out in the middle my only word of advice to him was to just hold one end up and let me keep the fight going I told him Lets play 50 overs and see how deep we can take this chase As you all are aware one has to be wary of the net run rate in this tournament So I told him to stick around and see where we finish at the end of the full 50 overs We didnt want to get bowled out as it would affect our net run rate Hence my focus was on taking the game deep to keep batting and score some runs for the team Mahmudullah saidHowever the Tigers failed to last the full 50 overs as they were skittled out for 233 by a rampant Protea attack in 464 oversThe Bangladesh batter who can also turn his arm over when required added that the team has enough batting depth but needs to string in more partnerships in the middle oversOn this sort of wicket you have to try and create an opportunity The focus should be on putting your team in a position from where they can push for a win And I think thats where we failed today With regard to the powerhitting aspect I think we have enough batting depth We have batters who can go big and find the fence regularly However it all depends on whether we are able to string enough partnerships in the middle overs I believe we need to have a few wickets in hand and build our innings through the middle overs instead of just going on an allout attack he addedAlso ReadDown the memory laneOn the teams preparation going into the game he said while the focus was on winning things werent going to plan Claiming that the fans will see a different Bangladesh team taking the field in the upcoming matches Mahmudullah said Whatever happened happened All we can do is to try and win every match for Bangladesh Were trying very hard but our plans arent working out But you will see a different Bangladesh team taking the field in the upcoming matches he addedAsked if there was any pregame talk of pushing up the batting order Mahmudullah said he just went out to the crease and tried playing his natural game without thinking about anything elseNo I didnt think about that being pushed up the batting order Yesterday the coach Allan Donald told me that I was going to bat at number six So thats it I just go out there and try to play my natural game That is all he saidIn possibly the form of his cricketing life South African opener Quinton de Kock played a magnificent hand scoring 174 runs in just 140 balls at a strike rate of 12429 to take his team to a mammoth total and deflate the opponentsHis dazzling was laced with 15 fours and 7 sixesComplimenting his efforts with the willow Heinrich Klaasen continued his stellar form smashing 90 off just 49 balls with a strike rate of 18367Klaasen smacked 2 fours and 8 towering sixes over the course of his blitzkriegThe Bangladesh bowlers struggled to impose themselves on the rampaging Protea batters as only seamer Hasan Mahmud managed to bag a couple of wickets from his sixover spell at the expense of 67 runsMehidy Hasan Miraz Shoriful Islam and Shakib picked up one wicket each in their respective spellsRiding on brilliant knocks by De Kock and Klaasen South Africa closed their innings at 3825Chasing a humongous target only Mahmudullah stood up for the Tigers as he blazed his way to 111 runs off as many ballsApart from Mahmudullah no other Bangladesh batter was able to post a significant scoreFor the South Africans pacer Gerald Coetzee again topped the bowling charts picking up 3 wickets in 10 overs at the expense of 62 runsMarco Jansen Lizaad Williams and Kagiso Rabada picked up two wickets each in their respective spellsHowever Bangladesh fell well short of the target as they lost by 149 runsWith the defeat Bangladesh hit rock bottom in the points table with just 2 points and a net run rate of 1253With agency inputs