World Cup 2023: Wanted to bat deep, says Mahmudullah after hundred vs South Africa

Bangladesh veteran batter Mahmudullah said he wanted to bat deep after scoring a century against South Africa at the Wankhede Stadium, in Mumbai on Tuesday. Mahmudullah’s century went in vain though, as they suffered a huge loss of 149 runs.

South Africa posted a gargantuan score of 382 runs on the board after Quinton de Kock scored a magnificent knock of 174 runs. Furthermore, stand-in skipper Aiden Markram scored 60 runs whereas Heinrich Klaasen smashed 90 runs off just 49 balls to continue his rich form.

On the other hand, Bangladesh found themselves in a quagmire at 81-6 after 22 overs while chasing the huge score. However, Mahmudullah scored a fine knock of run-a-ball 111 with the help of 11 fours and four sixes. The right-hander added crucial alliances while batting with the lower order.

Mahmudullah added that the idea was to take the game deep and get as many runs as possible so that their Net Run Rate doesn’t take a bad hit.

“Actually, I didn’t target my hundred – to be honest, because you just bat – when I and Mustafizur were batting in the middle, I told him – just stay on, hold on. Let us play 50 overs, let’s see what score we can get because there is an issue with the run rate, because if you get out early and cheaply, it will affect our net run rate too – so I just tried to go deep, just bat and try to score some runs for the team,” Mahmudullah was quoted as saying in the post-match press conference.

Mahmudullah has been batting at his absolute best in the ongoing World Cup but he is batting down the order below five. However, the right-hander refrained from commenting on his batting position.

“That was a good time, I think. I can’t say anything regarding that, though I do want to talk about a lot of things, but probably this is not the right time to talk about it,” he added.

Bangladesh will next take on the Netherlands at the Eden Gardens, Kolkata on Saturday.