Taskin: ‘We don’t like to lose, but we also won’t give up our intensity’

Taskin, who was declared player of the series after finishing as the top wicket-taker from both sides, said that their approach was the same as that in the first two matches of the series when Bangladesh posted 200-plus totals on both occasions. They had wicketless powerplays at a run rate of over 12 an over. The rest of the batters took advantage of the rapid starts to post the big scores.

“We lost early wickets but our intent was like the previous two matches,” Taskin said. “There were runs in those games but today we got out. I think we were capable of batting better but that didn’t happen today. We just had a bad day. Maybe we had a batting collapse today but we used the same intent to score 200 in the last two games. We have to keep this in mind. We must have intent to do well in T20Is in the future. We have to go ahead with an aggressive mentality, batters and bowlers alike. We have to accept that there will be days like today. It won’t make us fearful, rather help us for the future.”

Taskin said that the aggressive intent in the future will help them against bigger teams, as big scores will be paramount on good batting pitches. “We will be playing on good wickets against big teams like England and Australia. We have to score big, so this intent will help us. There will be collapse[s] from time to time, but I don’t think we will change our intensity. Being fearless will help us do better in the future.

“Everyone has an individual mindset. They wanted to play positively. They wanted to go after the ball that was in their zone from the first ball. Those who got out with miss-hits, those would have gone for six if they’d middle[d] it. That’s okay. We don’t like to lose, but we also won’t give up our intensity. We want to play aggressively. We want to focus on the positives from this series, not the negative parts,” he said.

“I think they play a certain way and it’s obviously worked for them,” Adair said. “So to criticize them after a failure, if you can call it that, is ridiculous. They are a very good team and they’ve now found a way that they want to play which will give them confidence. So, if they’re going to continue to play that way, and they buy into and commit to it, I don’t think there’s anything wrong with them failing. You are going to fail in T20 cricket. It is hard.

“So, provided that they all buy in and they’re all going to commit the same thing in, which they did today, even though wickets were following, they were still going hard, which is what – if I was their coach – I’d be delighted with. Although we lost, I’d be delighted with the fact that they continued to try and play the way that they’ve been talking about”.

Adair said that the wickets during the Powerplay helped Ireland make more breakthroughs in the middle overs, and keep control of the game.

“I think taking wickets in the powerplay today made a big difference. It allowed them to have to re-adjust and with the line-up that they had today, if they had batted like they had the other days, they would have picked the absolute the right team going with an extra bowler and try to skittle us for less,” Adair said.

Adair praised debutant Matthew Humphreys and Ben White for their tight bowling but felt that Paul Stirling’s quickfire 77 also made a big difference to the result. “Stirlo is world-class. He has been for the last 10 years. He has been and he will continue to be for as long as he plays. He has led the side pretty well in Balbirnie’s absence. I think we’re in a good place.”