Dhaka. Bangladesh captain Nazmul Hussain Shanto looked quite disappointed with his team after its 7-wicket defeat in the first Test match against South Africa at the Sher-e-Bangla National Stadium in Mirpur. He also appealed to the team to make united efforts in the next match. Chasing a target of 106 runs to win, South Africa did not face much trouble with the help of Tony Dejo Jorji’s 41 and Tristan Stubbs’ unbeaten 30 runs in the fourth innings and won the match by seven wickets. In the post match conference, Shanto said that we lost as a team. We are not talking about anyone, but we have flopped miserably as a team. First of all, we need to take responsibility as a batting group, especially against the new ball we have to perform well.
Mehdi scored 97 runs in Bangladesh’s second innings and helped the host team make a comeback in the match. This team was behind by 202 runs in the first innings. Mehdi’s innings gave Bangladesh a ray of hope and Shanto praised his courage under pressure. Mehdi also achieved a significant feat during the match, becoming only the third player after Ben Stokes and Ravindra Jadeja to score 500 runs and take 30 wickets in an edition of the World Test Championship (WTC). The defeat in Mirpur is Bangladesh’s third consecutive Test defeat, before which it had lost the series 2-0 to India. The second Test will be played in Chittagong from October 29.