The job is only partially done and Bangladesh have no choice but keep winning to stay in the hunt for a berth in the quarter-finals of the World Cup, said?skipper Shakib Al Hasan, after his team beat the Netherlands in Chittagong on Monday.
"We don't think we can cover the run-rate, because we didn't score big in this tournament. It is not depending on the run-rate; if we win the next match, we will qualify for the next round. It is as simple as that," Shakib said, after the six-wicket victory.
Bangladesh take on title favourites South Africa in their next group engagement. They not only need to win or avoid a heavy loss, but also hope that other results in the group also go in their favour.
Talking about the Netherlands match, which Bangladesh won comfortably chasing a modest target of 160, Shakib defended his form despite scoring just one run.
"I think I'm batting very well. We needed six runs to win, so I thought we could finish it quickly; but it didn't happen," he said.
Shakib's opposite number Peter Borren said the Dutch were done in by the conditions, which were difficult to adapt to.
"It was hard work and the wicket was hard as well. I think it was a good toss for us to win, but the wicket was very slow and there was not a lot of pace in it; in the afternoon it dried up a little bit and overall, I think, it was pretty slow," he explained.
"We are not really used to this sort of conditions, we are used to pace on the ball and today there was none. As I said yesterday, we would have to deal with the conditions and today we really did not deal with it," he added.
Borren said he was baffled by the four run-outs that quite literally broke the back of the batting.
"We kept losing wickets at crucial times. We tried to form partnerships but it did not work, and clearly we left the batting power-play for too long, because when we took it, we were already nine down.
"The reason we did not is that we kept trying to build partnerships but the four run-outs was pretty criminal at this level and a couple of poor dismissals as well," he said.
Borren said the regular loss wickets slowed down the pace of the Dutch innings.
"Our ratio between boundaries and singles was too low today. It is not as easy to rotate the strike as we normally find, due to the slowness of the wicket and the conditions. We tried to work hard on it but it's hard to practice conditions.
"I have said this before and I will say it again -- if guys get in, it's always a little bit easier, but today we had guys getting in and then getting out and we also struggled to rotate the strike," he added.
