Sodhi took the game away from us: Afif

Bangladesh uprising all-rounder Afif Hossain said that New Zealand leg-spinner Ish Sodhi made all the differences in the T20 opener, which the Black Caps won by 66 runs at the Seddon Park in Hamilton on Sunday. By virtue of winning the match, the Kiwis took the lead of the three-match T20 series 1-0.

Leggie Sodhi claimed 4-28 as Bangladesh were restricted to 144-8 in response to New Zealand’s 210-3. Sodhi did the most damage of the Tigers’ tent, dismissing Soumya Sarkar (5) and Mohammad Mithun (4) in one over after which he ruined Bangladesh’s all hopes of chasing the big target by removing skipper Mahmudullah Riyad for 11 in his next over.

“Sodhi pushed us to the back foot with two wickets in one over. That made the eventual difference,” he said.

“After he took back-to-back wickets, our plan was to target other bowlers and played him safely. But we couldn’t do that properly,” Afif said in a recorded video message sent by the Bangladesh Cricket Board (BCB). 

The uprising all-rounder said if they couldn’t loss wickets in cluster, they could have chased the target as the size of the ground was not big enough.

“Since the size of the ground was smaller, I think this target could be chased. For batting, the wicket was good enough. What made New Zealand batsmen successful is that they could utilize the smaller side of the field well. If we couldn’t loss back to back wickets, we definitely could have chased the target,” he remarked.

All-rounder, who scored team-high 45 in the first T20, however believes that they had some positive things in the match, which could help them to win the next match.

‘After coming here, it’s the first time I had got an opportunity to play a match and spent sometimes in the crease. I am happy for that and hope it will help me in the coming matches,” he said.

“We had good start to the match. Naim Sheikh gave us good start. We had two debutants in the match-Nasum bowled well. So we had some positive things which, I hope, will help us in the next matches,” Afif concluded.