Shakib: 'The win is a relief for the team'

Bangladesh felt comforted by their 26-run win over Oman on Tuesday but it was a lot of hard work, according to Shakib Al Hasan. He said that Bangladesh turned the corner through the spells of Mahedi Hasan and Mohammad Saifuddin while defending 153, but they are still looking to improve in their batting.

"The win is a relief for the team," Shakib said. "I believe the dressing room will feel a lot better. The defeat to Scotland was definitely disappointing, but they played well. Like Oman did today. We had to work hard to come back into the game. I think Saifuddin and Mahedi bowled really well. Their spells were the turning point of this win. I think they didn't even concede 30 runs in their eight overs, which really helped us. Credit to both for their bowling."

Shakib said that they only need to make slight adjustments in the first six and last five overs for a better score in this competition. "I think we have room for improving by 20 to 25 runs. We can score 15 runs more in the powerplay, and an additional 10 runs in the last five overs, we can get this done.

"I think we are capable of improving on this, but we shouldn't be too worried by it. If we get these extra runs, we can defend a 170-plus score," he said.

The performance of Oman and Scotland against Bangladesh also caught Shakib's eyes, who said that there should be far more respect for Associate Nations.

"I have to give a lot of credit to Associate countries for the way they manage to play cricket despite adversities. They played good cricket.

"There's a lot more expectations from us as a Test-playing country. We try to win but its not always possible. When we beat bigger teams, they probably feel this way. That's cricket for you."