Fought Australia in equal measure for four days: Mushfiqur

Bangladesh skipper Mushfiqur Rahim said on Wednesday (August 30) that they had the self belief of winning the Test match despite being pushed hard by the visitors in the opening game of the ongoing two-match series. Australia had two set batsman in the middle - David Warner and Steven Smith - when they resumed on Day 4 just 156 runs away from victory, before Bangladesh spinners wrecked their batting line-up to clinch a historical maiden Test win.

"We were confident," Mushfiqur told reporters on Wednesday. "They were in front but we always knew that we have to pick two wickets to get hold of the match. We fought with them in equal measures for four days. The wicket was assisting the spinners and apart from those two at the top, no one had the experience to play in this condition," he said.

"So we had the belief. Even when Cummins hit those two sixes, I knew we just needed one good ball to clinch the victory," he said.

Mushfiqur added that his belief was strengthened by the fact that it was an extremely difficult wicket to bat on. Bangladesh had a similar story when they played against England during their maiden win last year, when the spinners did the job in a rearguard effort.

"Naturally we took the inspiration from the win against England. The way it was behaving we knew that if we can bowl in the right areas, chances will come eventually," he said. "We had three world class spinners in our team, who can create those chances and our fielders need to take those ones," he said. "For a new man this wicket will always be difficult to bat on," he said.

Mushfiqur felt that Bangladesh also matched Australia in terms of aggression. "Naturally they had aggression but we were aggressive too," said Mushfiqur. "Not only with bat and ball, but with our body language as well. When there were six minutes left before lunch, Maxwell tried to take time so that they don't face an extra over. Australia, who try to dominate world cricket had gone on the back foot and were afraid to face an extra over," he said.

Mushfiqur added that he expected his spinners to step up their game and take some pressure of the leading tweaker Shakib Al Hasan.

Defending 265, Bangladesh recovered from a potentially match-winning 130-run third wicket stand between David Warner and Steven Smith - as they claimed the last eight Australian wickets for the addition of just 86 runs. Shakib was once again the hero, adding five more wickets to his first-innings haul of five, ending with impressive match figures of 10 for 153.

"Naturally our spinners can do much better than they did and it would release pressure from Shakib," he said. "He won't be able to do this every time and so everyone needs to take the responsibility. I hope we will get a wicket that will help us to win the series,' he added.

Source: Cricbuzz